


The Universe In Your Eyes

by toomanyunfinishedfics



Category: Persona 5
Genre: (for the god!Akira AU since it takes place post-Yaldabaoth fight), Actual Phantom Thief!Akira AU, Dragon!Ryuji AU, Ghost!Ryuji AU, God!Akira AU, I ended up writing seven prompts instead of five, I got a little overambitious with this AU week lmao, M/M, Pegoryu AU Week 2018, Rival Superheroes AU, Shadow!Akira AU, Spoilers, Wonderland AU, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-09 14:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16451492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomanyunfinishedfics/pseuds/toomanyunfinishedfics
Summary: No matter what world they’re in, Akira and Ryuji always seem to be drawn together, as if by fate.(A collection of seven separate AU one-shots)





	1. Day 1: Coffee Shop AU/Actual Phantom Thief!Akira AU

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [PegoRyu AU Week](https://pegoryucentral.tumblr.com/post/178642966502/without-further-ado-here-it-is-the-list-youve)! By a stroke of luck, most of the prompts happened to more or less fit AU ideas that I actually already had floating around; and since none of the ideas were formed enough that I’d be able to write more than a drabble/one full chapter on them anyway, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to get some kind of use out of them without worrying about trying to fully flesh them out lmao

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barista-by-day, Phantom Thief-by-night Akira has a little chat with his favorite customer, officer-in-training Ryuji.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how short this one-shot is ;_; For some reason I couldn't really think of much for the first and last prompts, so they ended up being the shortest OTL But hopefully the length of the rest of the prompts will make up for it!

Akira considered himself to be a very lucky person.

It wasn’t the fact that he was the owner and manager of a small but popular cafe at a ripe young twenty-five years old--that was a blessing, of course, but not top priority.

Nor was it his… _side-business_ as the mysterious, popular Phantom Thief Joker: a modern-day Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor, all glitz and glory and glamour as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, smoothly evading the police despite their best efforts while still taking time to wave to his adoring fans that gathered at every calling card sent out.

No, the reason Akira considered himself lucky was sitting right across from him at the bar at his cafe, nursing a cup of hot chocolate (never coffee, funny enough, despite him constantly coming to the cafe known best for its incredible coffee) and not-sulking with the most adorable look on his face.

“Rough day, Ryuji?” Akira asked softly, a smile on his face as he eyed his favorite patron, drinking in the sight of him while he wasn’t paying attention.

Ryuji groaned. “‘Rough day’ doesn’t even _start_ to cover it--can you believe that Phantom Thief jerk slipped away _again_ last night? That’s like, the fifth time this month!” His head moved to thunk down against the bar counter, and he only lifted his head enough to shoot Akira an annoyed look as he heard the barista chuckling. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing,” Akira replied, trying his best to keep the amused smile off of his face as he added, “But I’m sure you at least came close to catching him this time, right?”

“Yeah, but try telling that to my boss.” Ryuji sat up straight again, making a face as he continued, “Akechi thinks that he can push me around just ‘cuz he’s some famous-ass detective and I’m just starting off--but just wait until I catch that show-off thief! It’ll be fuckin’ _hilarious_ seeing the look on his high-’n’-mighty face once I drag Joker off in cuffs before he can even come close!”

Akira smiled, his eyes shining with amusement behind his glasses as he idly dried a few coffee mugs and began putting them away. “I’d love to see pictures when it happens; your boss looks like he needs to be taken down a peg or ten.”

He took another moment to admire Ryuji’s cheerful grin, his eyes trailing down his exposed neck as Ryuji threw back his head in a loud laugh.

“Ain’t _that_ the truth!” Ryuji picked his mug back up and took another gulp of the sweet liquid, oblivious to Akira’s gaze. “Guy’s got a stick so far up his ass he’s spitting out splinters!”

Akira chuckled. “In any case, I’m sure you’ll catch that Phantom Thief someday.”

“Thanks.” Ryuji grinned. “I dunno what I’d do without you and this cafe, seriously--it’s like I come in here and all my stress just melts away.”

“Even if you never order coffee?” Akira teased.

Ryuji stuck his tongue out. “Listen, the smell’s fine, but coffee tastes like shit and you’re not convincing me otherwise. ‘Sides, your hot chocolate’s delicious.”

“I’m flattered.” Akira smiled, shooting Ryuji a wink as he added, “I make it with love, just for you.”

Ryuji blushed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you say the same cheesy line every time.”

Akira’s smile widened slightly in amusement. “But is it working?”

Ryuji huffed and dropped his gaze in embarrassment, refusing to answer as he lifted the mug back up to his lips.

Akira smirked and turned his attention back to putting away the rest of the clean coffee mugs, apparently satisfied.

Even without hearing Ryuji’s reply, the darkening blush on his face said everything.

* * *

Akira entered the back room of the cafe after closing up for the night, grabbing his outfit and picking up his earpiece.

“Navi?”

“ _What’s up, Joker?_ ”

Akira smiled at the immediate response, mischief gleaming in his eyes.

“Get another calling card ready.”

“ _Again?_ ” Navi groaned. “ _Let me guess, you’re going to go flirt with that blond cop again. You_ **_know_ ** _he’s gonna catch on to you one of these days, right?_ ”

“Of course, that’s half the fun and all the thrill~”

Joker grinned as he donned his cape and mask.

As much as he’d love to let Ryuji catch him, this little game of cat and mouse that they had going was far too fun for him to give up just yet--so Joker would continue stringing him along, teasing him, even flirting with him when he really felt like being a bit dangerous, all while Akira listened to Ryuji’s woes and eased his stress the next day with a fresh cup of hot chocolate and a warm smile to match.

Maybe one day, he’d let Ryuji know that the Phantom Thief that irritated him and the barista that soothed him were one in the same--but for now?

For now, he’d just enjoy playing this dangerous game to the fullest.


	2. Day 2: Fantasy AU (Dragon!Ryuji AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercenary-for-hire Akira Kurusu, known more commonly by his codename “Joker”, is contracted to find and kill a dragon that is terrorizing the kingdom--except it seems that there is more to his target than what he’s led to believe….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jumping from about 800-ish words for one AU to about 3.6k for another just about sums up how crazy my writing can get lmao;;
> 
> Funny story about this one: I actually was thinking about using this as my story to participate in the P5 Big Bang, but when I sat down to outline it out I only got just about as far as I wrote out here before hitting a brick wall, and I ending up giving up on it rip;; Thankfully I could at least use this for AU week instead, so the idea didn't go _completely_ to waste lol

When Joker arrived at the castle, by order of King Kamoshida, he hadn’t quite expected the king’s request to be so dangerous.

Slaying a dragon and obtaining its heart was no easy feat--not that Joker wasn’t capable, of course.

The handsome reward promised to him, along with the sizeable down-payment offered and the promise of sending a group of his best soldiers to back him up, was enough to seal the deal for the mercenary-for-hire, who pocketed the hefty bag of gold coins and bid the king farewell.

(Joker knew that the soldiers weren’t really there to help him, though--he could practically _smell_ the king’s paranoia from a mile away, and he knew that the king was more concerned about him running off with the dragon’s heart--rumored to grant immortality, though not many people knew the legends--than about aiding the mercenary in his fight against the dragon.)

(He would be insulted if the thought of six measly soldiers trying to take him down wasn’t so amusing.)

Joker traversed the mountainside with practiced ease, his footsteps so light that he was practically walking on air in comparison to the clunky, uneven steps of the soldiers, who were obviously ill-prepared to walking up the rocky terrain. Still, he didn’t want them accusing him of trying to escape with the down-payment he’d been given, so as much as he wanted to leave them behind and move on, he forced himself to be patient and wait until the group of soldiers had made it to the top of the mountain with him before Joker finally turned and began sneaking into the dark, dreary cave.

Rumor had it that there was a cruel, terrible dragon that was ravaging the nearby towns, killing innocent civilians and putting everyone in danger, and anyone who tried to take it down was met with an untimely and unfortunate demise--Joker had been a last resort, one final attempt at ridding the land of the cruel, terrible beast and bringing peace to the kingdom. Everyone who was anyone knew about the infamous mercenary-for-hire, who was almost impossible to track down yet always somehow managed to appear whenever someone required his services, and who never once failed a job no matter how large or how dangerous: his prices were steep, but for those who could afford him, it was an absolute guarantee that whatever they wanted done would get done with no questions asked.

Yet even Joker couldn’t help but be slightly wary as he eased his way deeper into the cave, his eyes quickly adjusting to the dim lighting. Dragons were rare, and extremely powerful--he’d only ever fought two in his entire life, and both of them had left him with sizeable scars (a line of claw marks across his back, and an old third degree burn on his left side, both healed but both reminders that he, unfortunately, wasn’t as infallible as people seemed to think he was).

That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to go through with this anyway.

It wasn’t even about the reward; Joker just couldn’t stand the thought of people getting hurt, of people getting _killed_ by such a violent, dangerous creature, people who were just innocently living their lives without doing anything wrong.

Joker stiffened as he caught sight of something--the slightest hint of a glimmer in the darkness, one that would have been missed entirely had it not been for his sharp vision and even sharper reflexes.

Reflexes that urged him out of the way just in time for a burst of blue electricity to rush past him.

Joker tensed, his red eyes meeting gold, reptilian eyes as the jet-black dragon rose to its feet, its teeth bared as if the electricity hadn’t been enough of a threat.

(He didn’t want to admit it, but he might have bitten off more than he could chew here--no one had mentioned that this dragon wasn’t a typical fire-breathing dragon. Dragons of other elements were even rarer than regular fire-breathing ones, and usually even more powerful as well.)

(No wonder this dragon was such a threat--this kind of power could easily wipe out an entire town.)

Joker narrowed his eyes as he pulled out his dagger, the obsidian blade gleaming in the dim light as he launched in without preamble, aiming to try and take the creature off-guard.

What he wasn’t expecting was for the dragon to completely dodge him, moving swiftly despite its large size and despite the small confines of the cave.

_It’s obviously used to maneuvering in this small space--no doubt from all of the previous attempts that people have made to try and kill it._

Joker narrowed his eyes, jumping out of the way of another burst of electricity, and scowled slightly as he saw the soldiers rushing in out of the corner of his eye.

“Stay back!” he shouted, before grimacing and pressing himself against the cave wall just in time to avoid one of the dragon’s wings swinging out, knocking aside three of the soldiers in one hit.

All it took was a loud, ground-shaking roar for the other three soldiers to immediately turn tail and start fleeing towards the cave’s exit.

“... Guess it’s back to just you and me, then,” Joker muttered with a touch of amusement, twirling his dagger idly before pausing as the dragon’s gaze met his own.

_Dragons are intelligent creatures, but…._ Joker shook his head slightly with a frown. _No, I’m just imagining things._

Gripping the dagger tightly, Joker moved in, sidestepping another burst of electricity from the dragon’s jaw and ducking under a claw that nearly took his head clean off before leaping up onto the dragon’s back.

Just as he was about to drive his dagger down into the back of the dragon’s neck, he stumbled, caught off-guard as the dragon began moving--no, not moving, _shrinking_.

Reflexively jumping, Joker just barely managed to land and regain his footing before he was tackled to the ground by a black-haired young man, golden eyes gleaming with rage that almost completely covered up his desperate fear as he lifted an arm covered with patches of black scales, his fist meeting Joker’s face hard enough to make the mercenary briefly see stars.

Joker blinked to clear his vision before smirking, catching the young man off-guard enough for Joker to flip their positions as he expertly pinned the dark-haired boy to the ground beneath him.

“Get the hell off of me!!” he shouted, snarling and struggling wildly.

“I’d like a few answers first, if you don’t mind,” Joker replied, licking his lips and tasting blood--human form or not, the dragon was still extremely powerful apparently. “I don’t believe I’ve ever had the honor of meeting a shapeshifting dragon before.”

“I ain’t a fuckin’ dragon, I’m _human!_ ”

Joker blinked, taken off-guard for a moment, before eyeing the supposed- _not_ -dragon curiously.

“I see….”

The not-dragon growled as he continued glaring up at the mercenary. “I ain’t a dragon, and I didn’t hurt anyone! This is all that bastard Kamoshida’s fault!”

Joker continued watching him in intrigue, holding his gaze for a moment longer before sitting up and moving off of the young man.

“Alright, I’ll hear what you have to say.” Slipping his dagger back into his coat, he added, “I was hired to kill a dragon, not a shapeshifter or someone that claims to be human--so as long as you’re telling the truth, I’m considering my contract null and void as of this point.”

The not-dragon’s eyes widened in stunned shock, obviously not having expected the mercenary to actually listen to him, before scrambling to sit up and put some distance between the two of them as his expression turned guarded once more.

“... Kamoshida, he--he did this to me,” the dark-haired boy said after a moment. “After my father was killed, that bastard tricked me, said he was taking me somewhere to get me prepared for my coronation--he set me up, there were casters waiting and… and they did this to me, cursed me ‘n’ turned my own guards against me; he drove me outta my own fuckin’ home, and my ma’s still trapped with that _no good fuckin’ scumbag_ \--”

Joker put his hands up, silently gesturing for the young man to calm down as he saw his eyes beginning to glow and his teeth turning unnaturally sharp, and he only dared to speak once the young man took a few shaky breaths. “You mentioned a coronation… so does that mean that you’re…?”

“Yeah.” The dark-haired boy smiled humorlessly. “Ryuji Sakamoto, crown prince and next in line for the throne after my no-good father died--at least, until that backstabbing bastard took over.”

“... I see….” Joker quietly mulled over this new information--Ryuji’s face certainly held a strong resemblance to the pictures that he’d seen of the late king Sakamoto, minus the small patches of black scales littering his skin and the inhuman gold color of his eyes, and his story did match up with what he knew about Kamoshida’s coming into power: after the assassination of King Sakamoto and the tragic death of crown prince Ryuji, who was killed by a dragon that attacked the castle and later made its nest in one of the highest mountains in the kingdom, the king’s adviser had stepped forward as next in line for the throne and had taken over ruling the kingdom.

Joker couldn’t stand the eerie, almost insidious feeling of this kingdom, especially after Kamoshida crowned himself king--the people of the kingdom were poor, suffering, starving, yet they all continued to praise Kamoshida’s name on high like he was some kind of messiah, like he wasn’t draining them of all their resources while living in the lap of luxury.

If Joker had known that on top of all of that, Kamoshida was the true cause of the prince’s “death,” well… their meeting would have gone very different, starting with Joker’s dagger finding its way into Kamoshida’s throat.

“I’m serious!” Ryuji insisted with a touch of desperation, mistaking Joker’s silence for doubt. “I swear, I’d never hurt anyone! I wanted….” His shoulders drooped as his gaze fell to the floor. “I just wanted to fix this kingdom after all the horrible shit that my no-good father did, and now I gotta watch everyone suffering even _more_ \--and I can’t even do anything to help them, not without people screaming ‘n’ calling me a monster.” Ryuji clenched his hands into fists in frustration, tears stinging his eyes. “No one believes me; everyone’s too busy worshipping that fucking bastard to listen, and even if they’re not, they’re all scared shitless of me.”

Joker remained quiet as Ryuji spoke, only making a movement once the dark-haired boy finished speaking.

Ryuji’s eyes widened as the mercenary took a royal scroll out from his coat and showed it to him. “That’s--”

“My contract with Kamoshida,” Joker said, before pulling out his dagger and slicing through the parchment in one swift movement.

Ryuji’s breath caught in his throat in a mixture of surprise and overwhelming relief--finally, after all the attempts on his life, all the people that he’d had to hurt just to protect himself, _finally_ someone had stopped and actually _listened_ to him, had actually _believed_ him.

“As of now, I’m currently unemployed once more,” Joker said with a touch of amusement, before adding, “Ah, I suppose I haven’t properly introduced myself, have I? I go by the name Joker. It’s a pleasure to meet you, your highness.”

“Ugh, please, none of that ‘your highness’ bullcrap--right about now I ain’t much of a prince anyway, so just call me Ryuji, alright?” Ryuji’s smile died down as a thought suddenly hit him. “Wait, hold on… you said your name’s Joker… you mean like that crazy mercenary that can do practically anything you hire him for?” he asked incredulously. “That’s _you?_ ”

Joker laughed softly. “What were you expecting?”

“I… I dunno, but I wasn’t expecting someone who looks like they’re pretty much my age,” Ryuji admitted sheepishly, before a sudden thought occurred to him. “You said that you don’t have any jobs or anything now, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then… I want your help.” Ryuji straightened up, his gaze narrowing. “I wanna get that bastard off the throne, but I can’t do it on my own.”

Joker smiled. “I’ll do you one better--I’ll help you get rid of Kamoshida, and I’ll help look into a cure for that curse of yours.”

Ryuji’s eyes widened, his breath hitching in shock. “F… for real? But-- but why?”

“Consider it an apology for trying to kill you without knowing the full story,” Joker replied wryly, before smirking and adding, “That, and how could I not want to help a good looking guy like you out?”

Ryuji blinked, caught off-guard, before blushing lightly and scowling. “Oh ha-ha, very fuckin’ funny--”

“I’m serious.”

Ryuji stared incredulously at the mercenary, searching for any signs of deceit but finding nothing but sincerity, before quickly turning away with a huff, his blush darkening slightly. “You’re a fuckin’ weirdo, then. I’m a _freak_ , don’t’cha see all these creepy-ass scales on my body--”

“They’re beautiful,” Joker immediately replied, reaching out to run his fingers along one of the patches and smiling slightly in amusement as Ryuji jolted and quickly shifted away at the touch, the dark-haired boy’s face heating up even more in embarrassment.

“A… and my eyes, they’re all freaky ‘n’--”

Joker reached out again, tilting Ryuji’s head back to face him and looking into his golden eyes as he said, “They’re the most gorgeous eyes I’ve ever seen.”

Ryuji let out a strangled noise, his face burning all the way to the tips of his ears and his mouth opening and closing as he tried to form some sort of reply.

Joker decided to take pity on the prince as he pulled back with an amused look on his face. “With a face like yours, I would’ve thought you’d be used to people flirting with you, your h-- _Ryuji_.”

“Any chance of that happening usually goes right out the window after I open my mouth for more than two seconds,” Ryuji replied wryly after finding his voice again, his face still flushed and his gaze refusing to meet the mercenary’s as he pointedly ignored how pleasant his own name sounded coming from Joker’s mouth.

(It was just because he hadn’t heard anyone say his name in close to a year, that’s all, it didn't have anything to do with Joker or his weird-ass flirting--seriously, who the hell flirted with someone that they just met, who they just fought with and tried to _kill_ , and who just transformed from a dragon to a _not beautiful_ person right in front of them?)

“Not many people too interested in my face, either, even before all this," Ryuji added. "You’re just weird.”

Joker chuckled. “I’ve been called worse.” His expression hardened slightly as he decided to steer the conversation back on track. “In any case… I don’t normally do verbal contracts, but considering your situation, I’m willing to trust that you won’t be backing out of the deal at any point.”

Ryuji straightened up slightly and nodded, his own expression hardening as well, and for a moment Joker could see the hints of a true king in the making--he was still rough around the edges, of course, but someone like him… well, Joker hadn’t known him for long enough to tell for sure, but his gut was almost never wrong, and his gut was telling him that Ryuji would make an excellent king once they got Kamoshida off of the throne.

“I don’t have anything to offer but my word,” Ryuji admitted.

“Details, details.” Joker waved him off. “Since nothing is written, we can work out the specifics of the payment later on down the line.”

“That’s… awfully generous of you,” Ryuji replied warily, his guard almost visibly rising as he spoke. “This whole _deal_ is awfully generous of you, honestly. What’s the catch?”

Joker smirked. “I told you--”

“No, you  _flirted_ with me, that don’t answer nothing,” Ryuji shot back, ignoring the heat creeping back up into his face. “What are you getting out of helping me like this? There’s no down-payment, there’s no promise of a huge reward--”

Joker’s expression softened into a more genuine look as he replied, “Believe it or not, sometimes I do enjoy helping people just for the sake of helping them. It’s not all about money.”

“... Oh.” Ryuji dropped his gaze guiltily, his shoulders sagging as he murmured, “I… sorry, I didn’t mean to imply-- I just… sorry.”

“It’s alright, it’s completely understandable. The last person that you blindly trusted cursed you and took your home and your kingdom away from you; anyone would be wary after that.”

“Still don’t make it right to talk to you like that when you’re just trying to help, but… thanks.” Ryuji cracked a small, relieved smile, glad that the mercenary hadn’t been offended by his harsh accusation, before abruptly grimacing and gripping his head in pain. “Shit-- goddammit, not yet--!!”

Joker’s brows furrowed as he moved a bit closer to the prince. “Ryuji, what’s--”

“ _Stay back!_ ”

Joker frowned, taking note of the patches of scales slowly beginning to spread across Ryuji’s skin, his teeth and nails sharpening-- “Ah… well, it wouldn’t be a curse if you could retake your human form so easily. I’m guessing you can only hold that form for so long?”

“Usually… usually it’s longer but--” Ryuji grimaced in pain, his eyes opening to reveal slitted pupils as he looked at Joker nervously. “Used up a lot of energy fighting you, so I can’t….”

“It’s okay, Ryuji. Don’t force yourself.” Joker gave the prince a reassuring smile as he took a few steps back to give him space. “We can talk more tomorrow, after you’ve rested.”

Ryuji looked like he wanted to protest, but there was only so much he could do to keep the curse at bay before he was forced to change form once more, his body shifting and enlarging--the process was equally intriguing and unnerving to watch, and the only good thing to come of it seemed to be that Ryuji wasn’t in any visible pain anymore, though he still appeared to be nervous as he lowered himself to lay down while eyeing the mercenary warily.

Joker continued smiling as he approached the dragon, keeping his hands in sight and away from his coat at all times to show that he had no intentions of pulling out his dagger and hurting him. “I’ve never gotten the privilege of seeing a dragon up close like this,” he commented airily, reaching out to run his hand along Ryuji’s smooth black scales and laughing as the dragon jolted slightly under the touch. “Sorry; I guess you’re not exactly used to anyone touching you like this, huh.”

Ryuji let out a huff, lightly swatting him with one of his wings, and the mercenary chuckled as he ducked out of the way and gave the dragon some space once more.

Joker moved to sit down and lean back against the wall, making himself as comfortable as he could given the rocky terrain of the cave.

“Go ahead and rest. I’ll keep an eye out for anyone that tries to come in here.”

Ryuji’s gaze shifted over to the other side of the cave at the mention of other people, an alarmed noise slipping out, and Joker quickly followed his train of thought as he gestured for the dragon to calm down.

“I saw the other three soldiers flee when you changed forms, but I don’t think they got a proper look at your face before they left, so you don’t have to worry.”

Ryuji let out a breath and visibly relaxed, his body slumping as he lowered his head to rest on the ground--and within minutes, the rumbling sounds of the dragon’s snores began echoing through the quiet cave, prompting an amused smile from Joker as he pulled out his dagger and idly toyed with it to pass the time as he kept watch.

In all his years (which really wasn’t as many as it felt, time was just weird like that), he’d never met a human that was cursed into a form as powerful as a _dragon_ \--it must have been a testament to Ryuji’s inner strength, though Joker wasn’t sure what the specific curse was. He suspected it was something to either kill or incapacitate him; regardless, it seemed that Kamoshida hadn’t expected the result, but was trying to capitalize on it nonetheless, sending people to try and kill Ryuji and bring back his heart both as proof of the prince’s death and as a key component in the rumored elixir of immortality.

Joker didn’t know Ryuji for all that long, but he refused to let an innocent person be used and killed by someone as disgustingly cruel as Kamoshida--the prince had his home, his family, his _humanity_ stripped of him; he’d been fighting for his life for almost a year now against the people Kamoshida sent to finish the job, probably trying to travel down to the nearby towns for help only to be chased off and treated like a monster and a freak by anyone who didn’t recognize his face and a devil taking the form of their poor departed prince by those who did….

He couldn’t just let something like this go on.

Joker clenched his dagger tightly, his gaze flitting back over to the sleeping dragon briefly.

No, this was far beyond caring about a reward--he was going to see this through to the end, no matter what they had to go through, until Kamoshida was brought to justice and Ryuji’s humanity was rightfully returned to him.


	3. Day 3 (Part One): Phantom/Ghost AU (Ghost!Ryuji AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Needing to get away from his parents, Ren makes the impulsive decision to move out to Tokyo and start a new life for himself on his own, only to rent an apartment haunted by a cheerful--if slightly mischievous--ghost named Ryuji.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so you may be asking why I suddenly decided to switch from using "Akira" to "Ren"
> 
> ... I have no excuse, it's literally just because I wanted to write at least one fic with Ryuji calling him "Renren" lmao

Usually, when an apartment was listed with an abnormally low price, there was some sort of cause for concern.

Normally it was things like infestations, broken or run-down floors and walls, busted sinks, toilets and showers that needed repairs… Ren had heard it all--and seen it all, to his disgust--in his desperate search for an apartment that wouldn’t eat up the entirety of his savings in one month.

Maybe packing up the bare minimum of his essentials, walking out on his parents, and going all the way to Tokyo hadn’t been the _best_ decision that he’d made… but at the very least he’d managed to straighten out his transfer to a (less than reputable, yet still willing to accept him on such short notice) high school called Shujin before hopping on a train and getting as far away from his parents as his limited budget would allow, so it wasn’t like doing this would fuck up his life _completely_.

Not that it mattered, at this point. He’d already pulled the trigger, and he had too much pride to give in and go crawling back to his parents after making such a scene of leaving them to live on his own--he wasn’t going to be bested by a few run-down and overpriced apartments.

As if some higher power decided to say “Okay Ren, you deserve a break for all of your perseverance,” a realtor let him into the last apartment on their list, and Ren’s eyes widened as he stepped inside.

It was _perfect_.

Unlike the other apartments he’d seen, this one was in pristine shape--it was small, granted, but it had all of the essentials: a working bathroom (the toilet flushed, and the sink and shower both ran and properly drained), a kitchen (with a working sink, stove, _and_ refrigerator!) with enough open space that it could work as a living room as well, and a decently-sized bedroom with a decently-sized closet. There were no signs of infestation, no signs of leaks or water damage in the ceilings, no loose floorboards, no broken walls, _nothing_.

“How much did you say this apartment was?” Ren asked warily, not wanting to get his hopes up--this had to be last on the list because it was just out of his price range, that was the only logical assumption because there was no way that this apartment was--

“... About fifty thousand yen a month,” the realtor replied warily.

Ren’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head--that was even cheaper than some of the trashy apartments he’d been looking at all day; there _had_ to be some sort of catch.

Sure enough, the realtor continued speaking, obviously reluctant to divulge the information yet forcing himself to continue for integrity’s sake. “There have been… _problems_ with this apartment in the past. It goes back up on the market no more than a month or two every time it gets rented, with the same complaint each time--the apartment is haunted.”

Ren blinked, staring at the realtor incredulously. “... Haunted,” he repeated flatly.

“I’m skeptical myself,” the realtor admitted. “But after renting this same apartment at least five times over the course of the past six months, I’m beginning to think it really _is_ haunted. There’s no other explanation for how everyone could leave with the same kinds of complaints. Hearing voices, things breaking and moving on their own….” He frowned. “In any case, that seems to be the only problem, so if you want to take your chances….”

Obviously the realtor was eager to finally get rid of this supposedly-haunted apartment now that Ren seemed to be biting, and Ren himself couldn’t bother caring about some sort of curse or ghost or _whatever_ was lingering in this apartment.

Hell, it couldn’t be any worse than dealing with his parents. Best case scenario, the whole ‘haunted’ thing was bullshit and he got a good apartment for dirt cheap; worst case scenario, he could just let a ghost drag him down to hell and he wouldn’t have to deal with anything ever again. Sounded like a win-win to him, honestly.

Ren nodded. “I’ll take it.”

The realtor smiled, they shook on the deal, and after Ren filled out all of the paperwork and gave the first month’s rent and security, the teen allowed himself a small smile as he looked around the apartment--around _his_ apartment--with his copy of the building and apartment keys in his hand and the landlord’s blessing to move himself in right away.

Next step was actually furnishing the apartment--thankfully he’d anticipated needing time to get a bed, so he had a sleeping bag to use for the night (not exactly the most _comfortable_ way of sleeping, but it was marginally better than just lying down on the floor), and it was early enough that he was able to find somewhere nearby to grab something quick to eat, so he spent the rest of the evening idly eating a convenience store bento while comparing prices for furniture on his phone, taking advantage of the data he had left before his parents cut him off completely.

He’d probably have to pick up a part-time job while he was here, now that he thought about it--he added that to the list of things to look into.

Ren sighed. Well, it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to taking care of himself, even if he never had to worry about things like money and jobs before--but in the end, that was but a small price to pay for his freedom, and he’d gladly pay the price a thousand times over if it meant never having to deal with his parents’ cold words and detached glances again.

* * *

Two weeks into his new life in Tokyo and everything was going great.

He’d furnished his apartment to his liking (and even managed to find some things on sale, so it hadn’t cut into his savings too badly); he was doing decently at his new school (the rumors floating around about him--all sorts of ridiculous reasons why he was transferring in at such an odd time of year--were harmless enough to ignore, and it thankfully didn’t deter one or two people from approaching him for casual conversation); and he’d managed to find a part-time job that he absolutely adored (working at a florist’s was probably the least masculine job a teenage boy could get, but screw society’s ideas of masculinity, he loved flowers and he loved being able to get paid to be surrounded by flowers all afternoon on the weekends and all evening on the weekdays).

Living on his own apparently wasn’t as hard as he’d anticipated--or worried--it would be.

Now if only the supposed-ghost living in his apartment would stop bothering him.

It started off as small, insignificant things: his homework papers moving when his back was turned, books and other smaller objects (thankfully nothing fragile as of yet) getting knocked over, the occasional cold shiver running down his spine, a distorted voice barely reaching him while he was trying to fall asleep….

When he suddenly saw his schoolbag turning upside down, the contents falling all over the floor, Ren decided that ignoring the problem wasn’t going to solve anything.

“Alright, that’s _enough_ ,” Ren said forcefully as he began gathering all of the belongings that had scattered onto the floor. “Look, ghost or _whatever_ you are, could you either knock it off or find someone else to bother? I’m really not interested in dealing with you, I don’t have the money to try and hire an exorcist, and I can’t afford to find another place to live.”

Ren’s phone abruptly began to ring, causing his brows to furrow--no one except his parents and his old friends had his phone number, and none of them had bothered trying to contact him at all in the past two weeks, so why would someone be calling him now?

When he pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the number, a chill ran down his spine: he wanted to think that it was a scam call, but even those typically had regular phone numbers--this, this was just a string of random numbers stretching all the way across his phone screen; there was no way this was an actual phone number.

So then… what the hell was it?

(He had a feeling, but that didn't mean he was all too eager to admit it just yet.)

He tried rejecting the call, only for his phone to start ringing again the second the call was rejected. Next he tried ignoring the call, except instead of going to voicemail after a few rings, it just continued ringing.

And ringing.

And ringing.

And _ringing_ \--

Finally losing his patience, Ren irritatedly swiped at his phone to answer the call and lifted it to his ear as he grit out, “Hello?”

There was nothing but static for a second or two, just long enough for Ren to consider hanging up and taking the battery out of his phone, before he finally heard a voice, faint and overlaid with static as it was.

“ _God, you're so stubborn! How the hell did it take_ **_two damn weeks_ ** _before you so much as_ **_acknowledged_ ** _me??_ ”

Ren bristled slightly. “If you’re looking for attention, then you picked the wrong person to haunt--I don’t believe in ghosts, I don’t care about ghosts, and I don’t have time to deal with ghosts. Go find someone else to bother; I’m sure plenty of other people in this building will give you the reactions you want.”

He was about to hang up the phone and end the conversation (and pull the battery out of his phone if need-be) when the ghost’s voice quickly cut through the speaker once more.

“ _Don’t’cha think i would if I could?! I’ve been stuck here for months and I’m bored as hell!_ ”

Ren paused, staring at his phone for a few seconds before letting out a resigned sigh and lifting the phone back up.

Curse his innate need to lend an ear and hear people’s stories out until the end.

“So I’m taking that to mean that… what, you were killed here and now your spirit’s stuck here?”

“ _... I guess?_ ” the ghost responded hesitantly, apparently just as surprised as Ren himself was that he was willing to talk this out instead of going back to ignoring him. “ _I don’t really remember much--I’ve got a vague memory of, like, coming here for something important, and then… then I just remember floating around here. No one could see me, no one could hear me, I couldn’t leave… it sucked. Still does._ ”

“You know, the fact that a murder took place here is probably something that the realtor should’ve mentioned, instead of going on about the place being haunted,” Ren said wryly.

“ _No one ever mentions anything about me being murdered here though, that’s the crazy thing. If I wasn’t stuck here like this, even I prolly wouldn’t believe it._ ”

Ren frowned. “... So it was covered up, then?”

“ _Your guess is as good as mine, dude._ ”

Ren sighed. “What about your name? Do you at least remember that much?”

“ _Yeah!_ ” Even if Ren couldn’t see him, he could practically hear the ghost perking up, obviously glad to finally have a question that he had a definite answer to--either that, or he was just glad to have an excuse to properly introduce himself. “ _My name’s Ryuji--Ryuji Sakamoto. And you’re Ren Amamiya, right?_ ”

“How did you--oh,” Ren frowned. “Right, you’ve been here this whole time… I guess you must have heard my name at least once, or something.”

“ _Saw it on your homework, actually, but yeah._ ” Ren could hear the grin in the ghost’s-- _Ryuji’s_ \--voice as he said, “ _Glad to finally meet’cha, Renren~_ ”

Ren smiled thinly as he replied, “The pleasure’s all mine, _Sakamoto-san._ ”

“ _Aww, c’mon dude, don’t be like that!_ ”

Ren rolled his eyes, though he couldn’t stop his smile from twitching in genuine amusement. “Fine, fine, _Ryuji_.” Before the ghost could reply, Ren asked, “So, do you think there’s any way for me to at least see what you look like? Talking on the phone is fine and all, but it’s a bit weird not being able to put a face to your voice.”

“ _Uhh… not sure, honestly. I’m waving my hand in front of your face; can you see it?_ ”

Ren shivered. “No, but if you’re getting close, could you stop that? It feels weird getting those random chills.”

“ _Ah-- sorry, sorry!_ ”

The room temperature seemed to go back up, so Ren could only assume that Ryuji had given him a bit of space as requested.

“What about… don’t ghosts show up in pictures sometimes?” Ren asked curiously. “What if I tried to take a picture of you, so I could at least get an idea of what you look like?”

“ _Worth a shot. I’ll uh…._ ” The ghost paused for a moment before continuing, “ _I’ll go by the bed, so take a picture of the bed ‘n’ see if I show up._ ”

Ren switched the call to speakerphone as he opened up his camera app, aiming it at the bed and taking the picture before quickly pulling it up to look, admittedly curious despite his earlier skepticism.

“Oh….”

“ _Did’ja get it? Can you--woah, there I am!_ ”

Ren ignored the chill--presumably from Ryuji looking over his shoulder at his phone--as he zoomed in on the picture, trying to get a better look at the blurry image of the person sitting (or floating, he supposed) on his bed. He could make out blond hair, a bright-colored graphic tee, pants that looked _suspiciously_ like his Shujin uniform pants (but there was no way, that would be _way_ too big of a coincidence), and--what Ren’s gaze lingered on the longest, to his embarrassment--a bright grin that seemed to light up the entire picture despite the blurriness of the image.

Ren hated to admit it, but….

_… I’m being haunted by a fashion disaster--but at least he’s got a cute smile._

“ _That’s crazy, I didn’t think that’d actually work!_ ”

Ren shrugged, glancing over his shoulder as he saw something out of the corner of his eye before jumping and whirling around, his eyes wide as he saw the faint outline of a person standing-- _floating_ \--in front of him.

Ryuji seemed startled as well by the sudden movement, before realization quickly kicked in. “ _Wait, hold up, can you see me now or something??_ ”

“I… think so? Unless I’m hallucinating?”

(Ren wished he could write all of this off as one long hallucination, but it was getting harder and harder to deny that this was happening--he may have been a skeptic, but he wasn’t stubborn enough to deny something that was literally right in front of his eyes.)

“ _Here, wait, what am I doing?_ ”

Ren couldn’t help the snort of amusement that slipped out as Ryuji began jumping up and down while flailing his arms.

“Doing a very poor impersonation of what jumping jacks should be like, if I had to guess.”

Ryuji grinned, unperturbed by the sarcastic comment. “ _Harsh, but at least you can really see me._ ”

“It’s weird to hear your voice and not see your lips moving, though,” Ren pointed out.

Ryuji blinked and lifted a hand to his lips, as if only just realizing that he wasn’t actually talking through his mouth. “ _Oh… huh. Didn’t really think about that--guess it’s ‘cuz I’ve got no vocal chords like this or whatever. I’m not even really sure how I’m talking through your phone at all; I think I just got lucky, to be honest._ ”

“A lot of this seems to be stemming from coincidence or luck,” Ren replied wryly.

Ryuji shrugged and grinned once more. “ _Hey, after going months without anyone seeing or listening to me, I’m definitely not complaining about a lucky break._ ” His grin died down slightly as he added, “ _I just wish I could leave this damn apartment; I’m sick of being stuck here._ ”

“Well…,” Ren started cautiously, “would it be possible for you to… maybe follow me out? I won’t claim to know how exactly any of this works, but….”

Ryuji scratched his head. “ _Like… going from haunting the apartment to haunting you?_ ”

“Okay, you know what, I take it back--when you put it like that, suddenly it doesn’t sound like all that good of an idea.”

Ryuji moved closer to him (causing Ren to reflexively take a step back in turn, not that the ghost seemed to notice) with a pleading expression on his face. “ _Dude, c’mon, I swear I won’t do anything bad; I just wanna see the outside world again! Please?_ ”

Honestly, it was completely unfair for a ghost to have such irresistible puppy eyes.

Ren let out a long sigh, inwardly praying that he wouldn’t end up regretting this (or regretting making the suggestion to begin with) as he warily replied, “Fine--but I swear, try anything funny and I’m calling an exorcist; I don’t care _how_ much money it’ll cost me.”

Ryuji whooped for joy, jumping up in the air with an almost blinding grin, and for a moment Ren forgot his trepidation as he watched him with a small smile.

And then Ryuji dove to hug him and passed right through him, and Ren’s guard was immediately back up as he glared at Ryuji warily.

“Please try not to do that again. That was just… weird.”

“ _Wasn’t any better for me, man,_ ” Ryuji replied with a wince and a grimace. “ _Forgot for a minute, I’m really sorry._ ”

Ren relaxed his expression slightly as he let out a sigh--it was hard to stay wary of Ryuji when the ghost was so expressive, like he didn’t even have the first clue how to attempt to tell a lie.

“... It’s fine, accidents happen. Now come on, I need to go to the convenience store anyway, so we might as well give this a shot right now.”

Like a switch was flipped, Ryuji immediately perked up, and Ren had to force his lips not to twitch upward into a fond smile as the mental image of an excited puppy flitted through his mind.

“ _For real? We can try right now?_ ”

Ren raised an eyebrow. “Unless you want to wait--”

“ _No, no, I wanna try now! Let’s go!_ ”

Ryuji rushed past him and hovered by the door, and Ren had to again fight the urge to smile, instead focusing on grabbing his keys and his wallet before heading for the door, taking the call off of speakerphone and lifting his phone to his ear.

“I guess just try following me out and see what happens.”

Ren opened the door and stepped outside, glancing behind him curiously to see what would happen as Ryuji attempted to leave the apartment.

Apparently the ghost hadn’t been lying: when Ryuji tried to follow after him, it looked like there was some sort of resistance, like an invisible barrier that he was trying to push himself through to make it those extra few steps past the door.

Ren hesitated a moment, a frown on his face, before reaching his hand out to Ryuji silently in an offer--though he knew the ghost wouldn’t be able to actually grab onto him, he figured that _something_ would have to trigger the switch from being stuck around the apartment to being stuck around Ren.

The gratefulness that lit up Ryuji’s face as he reached out for his hand was so heartwarming, Ren could _almost_ ignore the chill that ran down his spine as the ghost’s hand passed through his own before settling on top of it--moments before Ryuji stumbled forward with a startled yelp, nearly (literally) running into Ren in the process.

“ _I… I’m out. Holy shit, I’m_ **_out_** _, I left the apartment!! Renren, you’re the best!!_ ”

Ren couldn’t help but smile in amusement as Ryuji whooped for joy and flew around faster than Ren could keep track of--probably burning off months of excess energy built up after being confined to a one bedroom apartment for so long, which Ren supposed was completely fair.

Figuring that Ryuji would catch up (or that he’d be forced to follow along, if he really was “haunting” Ren now instead of the apartment), Ren started heading for the exit, making a mental note as he switched his phone from one hand to the other to try and buy a cheap bluetooth headset so he didn’t have to spend all his time holding his phone up to his ear.

“ _Hey, wait up!_ ”

Sure enough, Ryuji rushed after Ren as he saw him disappearing down the stairs, floating after him with a grin and looking around as they exited the building like it was his first time seeing everything.

Which, considering how Ryuji’s memory seemed to be a bit hazy, might not have been too far off the mark.

“You don’t have to come with me,” Ren said into his phone after a minute or so of walking down the street, watching Ryuji practically twitching with the restrained urge to rush off and re-immerse himself in the outside world. Wryly, he added, “At least I can give my arm a break and put down my phone while you’re off doing your own thing.”

“ _But then how will I find you again?_ ”

Ren raised an eyebrow. “Why would you _want_ to find me again? Wouldn’t it be better if you could just go off and explore the world on your own?”

“ _Well… I guess, but…,_ ” Ryuji scratched his cheek sheepishly. “ _It’d be kinda lonely, ‘n’ well… you’re the first person I’ve gotten to talk to in a long time, who can even_ **_see_ ** _me now, so, like… I’d kinda rather hang out with you, y’know? I’m a bit tired of being alone._ ”

There wasn’t much Ren could say to rebut that without sounding like a jerk.

“Regardless, if you’re really stuck with me like you were stuck in that apartment, then I doubt you’ll be able to go that far,” Ren pointed out. “So you’ll end up finding your way back one way or another, I’m sure.”

“ _Oh… yeah, you’re right, I didn’t even think about that._ ” Ryuji didn’t seem too bothered by the idea, a bright grin quickly returning to his face. “ _Guess I’ll see just how far I can go, then!_ ”

With that, Ryuji floated off, and Ren hung up and pocketed his phone, deciding to let Ryuji do his own thing while he focused on picking up some food for dinner.

(And if he went a bit further out of his way to try and find that bluetooth headset that cut a _bit_ further into his savings than he wanted, well… it was better than making his arms sore from constantly holding his phone up, not that he was explicitly saying that he’d constantly entertain Ryuji’s chattering or anything like that.)

It was only when he arrived back home, Ryuji’s voice ringing out of the headset in his ear with said ghost floating alongside him as he put away the extra food he’d picked up, that a thought suddenly occurred to him.

If Ryuji was bound to him and had to follow him wherever he went… that meant Ryuji would have to come with him to school. And work. And _everywhere_.

Ren glanced over at Ryuji, taking in the sight of his ecstatic grin as he rambled about everything he got to see in his short time outside, and let out a quiet, amused sigh.

If this was going to be his life now, he figured he might as well just brace himself and get used to it.

After all, bringing a ghost with him to school and work couldn’t end up being _that_ big of a disaster, could it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Tokyo> For anyone curious about where I got the rent figures from, I actually did do my research and 50k yen is below the minimum average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment outside the city center (though I doubt anyone but me actually cares about such a throwaway detail lmao;;)


	4. Day 3 (Part Two): Demon AU (Shadow!Akira AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joker doesn't know how he came into existence, nor whether he's actually a Shadow or something else--all he knows is that he has to do everything in his power to protect the blond human that stumbled into the Metaverse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I did two prompts for today instead of one because a) I'm crazy, b) I originally wanted to do this one but wasn't entirely sure if it actually fit the Demon AU prompt or not (I ironically already used my original demon!Akira AU idea for my free day during Pegoryu week in July lol) so I decided to fill the Ghost AU one too, and c) I got this vague idea of Akira being a Shadow/Shadow-like creature a while back and wanted to do something with it without making it into a full fic lmao
> 
> Also, this takes place in canonverse, and literally the only difference is Akira doesn't exist and Joker is a Shadow lol

There existed a dimension controlled by the collective subconscious minds of humans, separate from their realm and unknown to most--a bleak, distorted space that shifted and changed with the whims of the people, branching off into separate, smaller pocket dimensions when a human’s distorted desires began to overpower the masses.

Joker came into creation knowing three things: his own name, the names of each dimension (human world, Metaverse, Mementos, Palaces), and the fact that he was not like the other mindless Shadows wandering the Metaverse.

He wasn’t the byproduct of a human’s distortion like some other Shadows, yet he had his own identity, his own will, unlike the creatures roaming Mementos or the ones bound to the whims of corrupted human consciousnesses in Palaces.

Was he even a Shadow at all? Or was he something else entirely?

He could manipulate the darkness like it was a part of him, melting into the shadows with ease, but that just gave more questions than answers--Shadows could certainly change form, but he’d yet to see one that could move as freely through the ever-present darkness of the Metaverse like he could, nor had he ever seen one that could bend the shadows to their whim, shifting and molding and moving them as he liked.

Then there was the matter of humans.

Joker had never seen one himself before today, nor was he sure how he’d known a human had somehow stumbled into the Metaverse--yet somehow he instinctively knew exactly which pocket dimension the human had found themselves in, and for some reason, Joker felt the need to follow after them.

The Shadows and Palace ruler all seemed intent on capturing and killing the defenseless human. Joker wondered if he was supposed to want to join them, because his instincts were screaming the exact opposite of what the Palace ruler was saying as he grabbed for one of the Shadows’ swords.

Maybe he was just a defective Shadow. Maybe he wasn’t even a Shadow at all. Regardless, all he knew in that moment was that he couldn’t let this human die.

The Shadows didn’t seem to be aware of his presence as he moved, melding into the shadows on the wall behind the human before reaching out, formless darkness wrapping around the human and concealing him from view.

In the dim lighting of the holding cell, it simply looked like the human had vanished before the Palace ruler’s eyes--and as Joker hoped, the Palace ruler immediately turned away and began searching, barking out orders to find and capture the “thief” in his “castle.”

The human struggled in Joker’s grasp, and though Joker was careful to muffle his mouth without cutting off his breathing completely, the noises that the human was making could get them both caught if he wasn’t careful.

“ _Be quiet_ ,” he said--whether it was aloud or in the human’s mind, even Joker wasn’t sure; he’d never spoken before, had no need for speech when there was no one and nothing to converse with, but it was good to know that he was at least capable. “ _Unless you want that king to kill you._ ”

The human fell quiet at that, though he was far from calm--he could feel the human shaking, his heart beating much too quickly and his breathing coming out shaky and unsteady.

It probably didn’t help that when the human glanced over his shoulder to try and see who was behind him, the only thing visible in the darkness were Joker’s eyes, gold and piercing as they met the human’s gaze.

Once the cell was empty and Joker could sense no more Shadows in the immediate vicinity, he released the human from his hold and watched him hastily stumble away, putting as much distance between them as the small dungeon cell offered.

“Wh-- what the hell are you? What the hell were those things? What is this place? Why was Kamoshida trying to kill me? _What the hell’s going on?_ ”

Joker stepped out of the shadows and returned to his physical form, hoping that it would ease at least some of the human’s fear.

“I don’t have many answers to give, unfortunately,” Joker began with genuine regret. “I don’t know all that much myself, but as for what I _do_ know… I go by the name Joker, and I came into existence in this world called the Metaverse. The place that we’re in right now is a small portion of the Metaverse, where a human’s distorted desires--such as the one you called “Kamoshida”--take root and form what’s known as a Palace. As for the guards, they’re known as Shadows, mindless creatures that wander the Metaverse and, in cases like this, blindly follow the orders of the ruler of whatever Palace they’re in.”

The human grimaced and ran a hand through his hair, obviously frustrated. “This shit’s way too complicated for me to follow… but basically this is all that bastard Kamoshida’s fault, then.” He hesitated before warily asking, “Not that I don’t appreciate it, but… why’d you help me?”

“I’m… not sure myself, to be honest,” Joker admitted. “I sensed that there was a human in the Metaverse, and my first instinct was to find and protect you. Humans don’t belong in the Metaverse, not without some way to defend themselves from Shadows.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the distant sound of armored guards walking around, and Joker held his hand out to the tense human, pulling his wary gaze away from the cell door and back over to him.

“Let me help you find your way back home.”

The human eyed Joker’s hand warily, seeming to weigh his options before finally cracking a small smile and reaching out to grab his hand.

“Not like I’ve got much of a shot getting outta here on my own, so… thanks. I appreciate it.” His smile widened slightly as he added, “My name’s Ryuji, by the way--Ryuji Sakamoto. Wish it was under better circumstances, but good to meet’cha all the same, Joker.”

Joker cracked a small smile of his own.

“Likewise, Ryuji.”

* * *

Joker led the way through the Palace halls, Ryuji close on his heels even as he gawked at their surroundings with a mixed expression of bewilderment, irritation, and disgust (and complete outrage when he saw the other human-like Shadows that were being held prisoner and abused, even if Joker repeatedly assured him that they weren’t real humans).

“Fuckin’ no good disgusting narcissistic scumbag… course he’d make a crazy place like this for himself,” Ryuji muttered as they passed by yet another decorative bust with Kamoshida’s face on it.

“Technically he didn’t make it, or at least not consciously,” Joker responded quietly, pausing in his response momentarily to grab Ryuji’s hand and pull him down into a crouch against one of the walls, pulling up the shadows to cover him as two guards walked by. He waited until they were a safe distance away before pulling back the shadows and helping Ryuji back up to his feet as he continued his explanation. “If I had to guess, this Palace overlaps with a location in the human world, one that ‘Kamoshida’ sees as his own personal castle.”

Ryuji muttered his thanks as he dusted himself off, trying his best to hide his unsettled expression from the shadows that had brushed against his skin like they were alive.

“The school, probably,” he replied with an irritated grimace. “Damn bastard acts like he owns the place. Wouldn’t be surprised if he seriously thought of it as his own castle.”

Joker hummed in thought before wordlessly gesturing for Ryuji to follow him as they continued onward.

“How big _is_ this place, though?” Ryuji asked, absentmindedly rubbing his leg with a slight grimace. “Feels like we’ve been wandering around for hours now.”

“The exit should be just a little farther.” Joker opened up another door and led the way into a room that Ryuji obviously seemed to recognize, as he immediately perked up in relief.

“That’s the place I came in from! _Finally_ , I can get the hell outta this freaky place!”

“Ryuji, wait--!!”

Ryuji ignored Joker’s exclamation as he rushed down the stairs towards the exit, before stumbling and falling with a startled yelp as he was tugged backwards by a shadow wrapped around his waist, seconds before a spear pierced the ground exactly where he’d been standing.

He swallowed thickly, his face pale as he stared at the weapon that was mere inches away from him, buried in the ground deeply enough to show the strength of the Shadow that had thrown it.

It was like this place was trying to _kill_ him or something.

(Ryuji had allowed himself to briefly forget while running and hiding with Joker that it really _was_ trying to kill him--and it was a damn good thing that he’d taken Joker up on his offer, otherwise he probably would have gotten skewered at least ten times over trying to escape on his own.)

Joker rushed forward and put himself between Ryuji and the Shadow, briefly glancing back at Ryuji with a frown. “Are you alright?”

“I… y-yeah, I’m fine, thanks.” Ryuji shakily pushed himself up to his feet, scowling in frustration as he saw more guards starting to close in from all sides. “Shit, this is bad….”

Joker frowned, glancing around at the Shadows closing in on them with a calculating frown.

“Ryuji, stay close. I’ll try and open a pathway, and when it’s clear, you run for the door. Don’t look back and don’t stop.”

“Wh--” Ryuji looked at Joker in bewildered alarm. “For real?! I-- how am I supposed to just-- I mean, what about you??”

Joker cracked a small smile. “I’ll be fine. Just focus on getting out of here in one piece. You should be able to return to the human world if you put enough distance between yourself and this castle.”

Ryuji wanted to argue, but the sight of the Shadows lifting their weapons gave him pause--there was no point in putting up a fight if it would just end up getting them both hurt, or worse. “... Fine. Just… be careful, alright? I don’t wanna feel like I’m sending someone to their death just to save my own ass.”

“You aren’t, and I will, I promise.” Joker smirked, the shadows swirling around his feet and--to Ryuji’s obvious shock and slight awe--shooting up in sharp spikes that pierced the guards’ armor with ease, each of the pierced guards’ forms bursting into darkness and disappearing into the surrounding shadows before they could even hit the ground.

Taking that as his cue, Ryuji put all of his previous track practice to good use--bum leg or not--as he sprinted for the door, Joker’s shadows clearing the path for him as guard after guard fell to his attacks.

_He’s strong,_ Ryuji couldn’t help but absently note, a shiver running down his spine as he realized just how lucky he was that Joker had decided to protect him instead of trying to kill him like everything else in this twisted world.

Joker watched as Ryuji burst through the doors of the castle and kept running, and running, and _running_ until Joker could no longer sense the human’s presence at all--at which point he finally allowed himself a quiet, relieved sigh as he stopped fighting, instead slipping off into the shadows and leaving the Palace entirely.

No point in wasting any more energy. His job was done.

(How odd, that he’d unconsciously thought of it as a job. Joker supposed that just meant that protecting Ryuji had been the right thing to do after all.)

Though he knew it was foolish of him, Joker couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever see Ryuji again.

He hoped not, for the human’s sake, yet at the same time….

Joker shook his head slightly, and time moved on as it always did--though if it moved a bit slower now that he’d gotten a taste of conversing with another living being before going back to being on his own, well… he just did his best to ignore the feeling and carry on as normal.

* * *

“I really hope you aren’t going to be making a habit of this.”

Joker stepped out of the shadows, standing in between a very familiar human and the Shadow that had tried to attack him.

Said human grinned in obvious relief as he looked at Joker, a far cry from the wary expressions Ryuji had worn the first time they’d met.

“Not really planning on it, no,” Ryuji replied with a sheepish laugh, visibly relaxing now that Joker had taken care of the Shadow that had ambushed him.

Joker frowned. “Did you end up here by accident again? I can help you back to the exit--”

“That’s not it,” Ryuji quickly said. “It wasn’t an accident. I came back on purpose.”

Joker blinked, genuinely bewildered--a human that could freely come and go through the Metaverse? Was that even possible?

(Did that mean it was possible for Shadows like himself to freely travel between the two dimensions as well? Joker had never entertained the thought before, but now….)

“Why?” was the only reasonable question that Joker could manage to come up with, at least that he figured Ryuji would be able to give him an answer to.

Ryuji’s expression fell into a look of irritated determination. “I know you said that the people here weren’t actual people, but… I definitely recognized at least one of ‘em--and if this place is really based off of how that bastard Kamoshida sees the school, then that’s gotta mean that the people I saw are at least based off of the people that Kamoshida’s been abusing.” He clenched his hands into fists at his sides. “If I could just… get a picture of ‘em, or even just memorize all their faces so I know who to go to back home for proof….”

Joker frowned. “So you came back to a place where you were almost killed… in hopes of finding evidence of Kamoshida’s distortions? To help other people?”

“Something wrong with that?”

“Well… no, I suppose not,” Joker replied slowly. “I was just under the impression that humans were a bit more… selfish than that, to be honest.”

Ryuji scowled. “Don’t lump me in with assholes like Kamoshida--just ‘cuz those are all the kinds of humans you prolly see here in this crazy place, don’t mean we’re _all_ like that.”

“Yes… I’m beginning to see that.” Joker cracked a small smile, before his expression quickly died back down into a frown. “But good intentions or not, it was still dangerous of you to come back to a place like this on your own.”

Ryuji flinched slightly and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, a light, embarrassed blush heating up his face. “Well, to tell you the truth… I was kinda counting on you showing up if I got into any trouble. I mean, you said last time that you sensed me or whatever and came right away to help, right? Figured it’d be the same this time.”

Joker wasn’t sure whether to feel flattered by Ryuji’s trust or annoyed by the human’s lack of self-preservation, so instead he settled on letting out a quiet sigh and shaking his head slightly. “Well, regardless, I’m glad I got here before anything could happen to you. Let’s get you whatever information you need, and I’ll help you back to the exit again.”

Ryuji grinned brightly. “Thanks man, you’re the best!”

Joker couldn’t help but crack a small smile in return.

“Anytime.”

(Joker didn’t exactly want to _encourage_ Ryuji constantly wandering into the Metaverse and getting himself into trouble, but the feeling of being trusted and relied on was admittedly more pleasant than he ever thought it would be, not that he’d ever considered having prolonged contact with a human in the first place.)

(At least, not until he met Ryuji.)

* * *

Joker had no idea what to make of this.

Rescuing a talking cat (“I’m not a _cat!_ My name is Morgana!!”), learning about something called a “Persona,” getting caught off-guard and pinned down, weakened and cut off from the shadows and still struggling to try and break free to protect Ryuji because that was his job, his purpose, it _had_ to be, it was the only thing that explained the feeling inside him that had made him rush to Ryuji’s aid both times--

And then there was Ryuji, on the floor clutching his head as Kamoshida spoke about things that made no sense to Joker--talk of track teams and traitors and all Joker could glean from it was that Kamoshida was at the center of all of Ryuji’s inner pain and struggles--before a mask suddenly appeared on Ryuji’s face.

Screaming. Blood. A bright flash of light, a strong gust of wind, electricity crackling in the air so thick that Joker could practically taste it, and something inside him stirred at the sight, as if his own power was renewed just from watching Ryuji’s awakening.

(Awakening? Was that what it was called?)

There was a blast of blue electricity from the Persona floating behind Ryuji, moving at his command, and Joker immediately slipped away from the guard and back over to Ryuji’s side.

Having a Persona didn’t mean Joker would stop protecting Ryuji, though it did admittedly feel good--thrilling, even--as his shadows mixed with Ryuji’s electricity, light and darkness swirling and melding and piercing through each of the guards that tried to close in on them while Morgana watched their backs, obviously just as skilled as Joker himself despite his size as his Persona cut through the remaining guards with gales of wind as sharp as the sword in his hands (or paws--but again, he wasn’t a cat).

The only unfortunate matter was that Kamoshida had escaped during the chaos, though with how Ryuji stumbled and swayed on his feet in clear exhaustion, Joker’s quick reflexes being the only thing preventing the human from falling forward and hitting the ground, he supposed it was probably for the best--there was no way Ryuji was going to be able to do anything in his condition, and Joker himself was admittedly the slightest bit exhausted as well, for the first time in quite possibly his entire existence.

(However long that was, Joker had no idea.)

Morgana parted ways with them, claiming to still have business in the Palace, leaving Joker to help Ryuji back outside before reluctantly letting him go.

“... Thank you,” Joker said after a moment, the words feeling odd on his tongue--it was the first time he’d ever thanked anyone, the first time he’d ever had a _reason_ to thank anyone, not that he’d ever interacted with anyone other than Ryuji before anyway.

Being around Ryuji apparently meant experiencing a lot of things for the first time.

Ryuji looked surprised for a moment before grinning, a light blush on his face. “C’mon dude, you don’t gotta thank me--I mean, you’ve already saved my ass how many times now. ‘Sides, we’re friends, right? Friends watch each other’s backs.”

“Friends…?” Again, the word felt odd to say, to apply to himself, to apply to this human that he’d only ever met once before in his existence--who had started off fearing him and only stayed with him to assure his own survival.

Yet Ryuji considered them to be friends? How odd.

(The fact that Joker didn’t mind the thought was even odder.)

“I mean… just ‘cuz you’re not human don’t mean we can’t be friends, right?” Ryuji asked, though he seemed slightly more hesitant than before, most likely from Joker’s lackluster response. “Kinda sucks that we can only see each other here, especially ‘cuz I don’t wanna be in this creepy-ass place any longer than I’ve gotta, but….”

“Help me come into your world, then.”

Ryuji blinked, bewildered by the sudden request. “... Huh?”

Joker took a step forward towards him. “I want to go into the human world. If you could manage to travel freely into this dimension, then… maybe there’s a chance that I can go back with you.”

Ryuji frowned warily. “I mean, I’m all for giving it a shot, but….” He fell quiet for a moment before grinning weakly. “Y’know what? Screw it. Let’s do it--what’s the worst that could happen?”

Joker supposed that there were a few worst-case scenarios that he could think of, but he was pretty sure that Ryuji didn’t actually want to hear them--nor did Joker himself want to dwell on them, not when Ryuji was holding a hand out to him just as Joker had done for him the first time they met.

He smiled as he took Ryuji’s hand, already looking forward to whatever surprises the human world would have to offer.


	5. Day 4 (Part One): Free Day (God!Akira AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Phantom Thieves hadn't been prepared to face a god, nor had they been prepared for their leader to summon a god from within himself--but they took it all in stride and saw it through to the end… except when the end came, no one except the Phantom Thieves seemed to know who “Akira Kurusu" was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to angst town, enjoy your stay (the chapter ends on a happy note though I promise lmao)
> 
> So basically my thought process for this was as follows: Futaba shares a voice actor with Madoka -> Madoka became a god -> Akira summoned a god Persona -> what if Akira became a god -> angst -> oh no too much angst back it up a bit -> happy(-ish) ending

They won.

They defeated Yaldabaoth, they saved everyone….

Wasn’t it bad enough that they lost Morgana?

Why did they have to lose Akira too?

* * *

It was almost scary how long it took the group to realize Akira was missing--like waking up from a dream, still caught in that haze of figuring out what was real and what wasn’t, the memories trickled back.

Akira had been standing with them as Morgana disappeared, yet once Morgana was gone and their surroundings had returned to normal, he’d just….

Vanished.

No slow disappearance like Morgana, no chance for any of them to even say _goodbye_ \--

It was like in exchange for the world returning to normal, he’d just been wiped clean off the face of the Earth.

They couldn’t accept it.

( _Ryuji_ couldn’t accept it, not when he’d still had so much he wanted to say to Akira, so much he wanted to do with him, _so much_ \--)

* * *

Futaba returned back to LeBlanc to check on Sojiro and shakily try and break the news of Akira’s disappearance to him.

Sojiro had no idea who this “Akira” was that she was going on about.

When Futaba group called everyone hysterically sobbing, it finally sunk in:

Akira wasn’t coming back, and what’s worse, no one but them remembered he even existed in the first place.

* * *

“Ryuji, I know you miss him--we _all_ do--but this isn’t healthy.”

Ryuji weakly glanced up from his desk at class to find Ann looking down at him, with Makoto and Haru standing worriedly by the doorway.

“... ‘m fine. I just dozed off in class again, you can yell at me ‘bout it later,” Ryuji muttered, forcing himself up to his feet and grabbing his bag.

“Ryuji--”

“I’ve gotta go.”

Ryuji quickly fled from the room, knowing fully well how ridiculous he was acting--he should be grateful that he finally had friends who cared about him, who were worried about him and wanted to help him--

But they weren’t Akira.

No one could ever replace Akira.

He’d lost Akira before he could even properly express just how important he was to him--

It wasn’t _fair_.

Akira had sacrificed so much for everyone else: starting right from when he’d been forcibly put on probation just for helping a woman being harassed by that bastard Shido, Akira had done nothing but put his neck out again and again for strangers and friends alike, toeing the line between life and death more times than Ryuji was comfortable with all to make sure that everyone else was safe.

And after all that, _this_ was his reward? To be wiped off the face of the planet, with no one to remember him but a group of teenagers who couldn’t even save their friend from a fate that they’d all been completely ignorant of to begin with?

What was the point of everything that they fought for? Was this really the _justice_ that they worked so hard to uphold?

It just wasn’t **_fair_ **.

Ryuji wanted to scream, wanted to cry, wanted to hit something, do **_something_ ** other than wallow in grief and bitterness; yet he had to keep moving, had to keep carrying on with his life as days passed into weeks, feeling like his heart was weighing his entire body down and making it hard to even drag himself out of bed each morning--especially when his dreams were his only reprieve from the heartache, the only time he could ever see or hear Akira again, and having to wake from them and return to reality felt like torture.

If Akira couldn’t live the rest of his life, then Ryuji would just have to live it for him.

He just wished that living wasn’t so hard.

* * *

The first time Ryuji saw Akira out of the corner of his eye, he thought he was finally going insane.

The image was gone as soon as he blinked, and he’d hardly even realized how his heart had risen in hope until he could almost physically feel it sinking in disappointment--and really, he should know better by now; two months had already passed and Akira obviously wasn’t coming back.

At least Morgana had come back to them, even if breaking the news about Akira’s disappearance to him had resurged all of the grief and heartache that the group had been doing their best to bury in his absence.

(But again, Morgana wasn’t _Akira_.)

Then a few days later, Ryuji caught a glimpse of Akira _again_ , one that lasted for two blinks before disappearing right before his eyes, and he felt a chill running down his spine.

Akira… Akira _was_ gone, wasn’t he?

What if--

( _No, don’t get your hopes up, he’s_ **_gone_ ** _and he’s never coming back--_ )

The third time, Ryuji was walking the streets of Shibuya when he happened to see a familiar head of hair in the distance--and he didn’t care anymore, even if he was going crazy he just had to _know_ \--

Ryuji grabbed the person’s shoulder (tangible, warm, familiar under his hand) and turned him around, his breath catching in his throat and tears stinging his eyes as he saw the face that had haunted his dreams--and now his reality--for months.

“Ryuji,” that sweet, familiar voice (that Ryuji thought he would never be able to hear again) said, and Ryuji didn’t even care if he sounded a bit monotone or if his expression seemed a bit more impassive than usual, it was _Akira_ and _Akira_ was physically standing in front of him saying his name and--

Unable to hold himself back, he grabbed Akira and pulled him into a tight hug, hardly even caring about what anyone watching them were thinking as he let out a sob.

“What the hell, what the  _hell_ Akira!! You just-- you disappeared for _months_ and now--” Belatedly, Ryuji realized that Akira wasn’t making any attempts at hugging him back, and he pulled back awkwardly, shame heating up his face.

Right. If Akira disappeared and was back, there had to be some sort of reason, yet here he was wasting Akira’s time by blubbering and clinging to him like a child--

“I’m sorry,” Akira said, though neither his tone nor his expression seemed very apologetic--in fact, they didn’t seem very… _anything_ , really.

Akira had a good poker face, sure, but he was never this… Ryuji didn’t even know _how_ to describe it. Monotone? Flat? Detached?

“Emotionless is the word you’re looking for,” Akira responded, causing Ryuji to jump slightly, his embarrassed blush darkening--had he been talking aloud? “I wanted to put off meeting with any of you until I’d adjusted to using a vessel, but I kept finding myself drawn to you every time I tried practicing.”

“W… wait, hold on, back up, I’m confused.” Ryuji looked at Akira warily. “What d'you mean ‘using a vessel’?”

“Ryuji, I don’t exist as a human anymore.”

Ryuji laughed weakly, eyeing Akira for a moment as if waiting for the punchline before swallowing thickly when Akira continued to watch him with a blank gaze, all the color draining from his face.

“... Okay… let’s say you’re not talking crazy. So then what… what _are_ you?”

“Summoning a god was too much for a human body to handle,” Akira responded, as if that explained anything. Apparently sensing Ryuji’s confusion, he added, “In order to summon the power of a god, I had to become one myself. No one was supposed to remember me at all once my human form was erased from this world; but I suppose all the time you and the others had spent in the Metaverse affected your cognitions thoroughly enough that you were able to retain your memories.”

Ryuji shakily ran a hand through his hair, trying to wrap his mind around what Akira was telling him. “... A _god_. You’re saying because you summoned that god Persona, you had to _become_ a god? That’s-- that’s crazy, that don’t make no sense--”

“You don’t believe me.”

“I--” Ryuji faltered, feeling sick to his stomach--this wasn’t how he dreamed his reunion with Akira would go; he thought it would be happy, that they would hug and cry and Ryuji would weakly yell at Akira for disappearing on them and Akira would apologize and offer to make it up to him and they would go out for ramen and everything would be _normal_.

This… this wasn’t _normal_ , this wasn’t _right_ , this person in front of him wasn’t _his_ Akira, _his_ Akira wasn’t some sort of god using an emotionally detached puppet to communicate with him--

“I’m still your Akira,” Akira said, making Ryuji flinch and blush heavily in embarrassment (he _knew_ he wasn’t speaking aloud that time--which meant what, Akira could suddenly _read minds_ now with his _god powers_ or whatever?). “And if you need proof, then….”

Akira looked up at the sky as he raised his arm and moved it slowly, and Ryuji watched as the clouds moved in time with Akira’s arm--and then Akira clenched his hand, and suddenly rain began falling from the sky, causing everyone walking on the streets to rush for cover from the sudden downpour (yet even in the chaos, no one seemed to notice the two of them, even as the people ran around them). Akira unclenched his hand and moved his arm again, and the rain slowed to a halt as the cloud drifted away, leaving everyone murmuring about crazy Tokyo weather as they continued on with their day, annoyed but otherwise not giving much thought to the odd occurrence.

Except for Ryuji, who stared at Akira with a dumbfounded expression.

That was… that was literally manipulating nature; there was no way to brush that off as a coincidence; not when Ryuji saw everything happening right in front of his eyes, all in time with Akira’s motions.

Ryuji snapped out of his shocked stupor when Akira waved a hand in his direction, and he blinked as his clothes and hair--which he hadn’t even realized had gotten soaked--were suddenly dried.

“Is that enough proof for you?” Akira asked, and Ryuji wasn’t sure whether or not he imagined the tiny glimmer of smugness hidden underneath Akira’s otherwise impassive expression, but regardless, there was no denying it.

Akira was telling the truth. He… he was seriously some sort of _god_ now.

“Dude, that’s _crazy_ ,” Ryuji breathed out with a slightly hysterical laugh. “You’re… what the _hell_ , man? Why-- if you’re some kind’a _all-powerful god_ now or whatever, why… why didn’t you come back sooner??”

“I told you, I needed time to adjust. It isn’t easy transferring a portion of my consciousness into a vessel; I have to find the right balance. I’ve managed to reach a stable point, where my vessel doesn’t fade out of existence, but I haven’t fully transferred anything beyond my thoughts and memories.”

Ryuji grimaced. “No offense, but hearing you talk like this with that dead look on your face feels like listening to a robot or something.”

“Again, this is why I wanted to wait before meeting with you.” Akira lowered his gaze. “I’m… still figuring things out. It isn’t easy, god or not.”

Ryuji’s expression softened in a mixture of guilt and sympathy as he reached out and pulled Akira into another hug, smiling weakly as he felt Akira’s arms moving to wrap around him in turn--even if it was stiff, and even if he was obviously mimicking Ryuji’s movements, it was still _something_ , and right now Ryuji would gladly take a stiff hug from Akira than not being able to feel him and see him and talk to him at all.

“What’s it like?” Ryuji asked quietly, continuing to hold Akira close--no one was paying attention to them anyway, but even if they were, he couldn’t bring himself to care anymore. “And since you’re talking about _vessels_ and stuff… where are you really?”

“I don’t have a physical form anymore,” Akira replied. “I just… exist, watching Earth--and honestly, with everything that I’ve seen and everything that I’ve heard… I understand where Yaldabaoth was coming from. Humanity is hopeless.” Akira felt Ryuji stiffen and tightened his hold slightly, enough to keep Ryuji from moving as he continued speaking. “I thought that perhaps I could help the world, fix the problems that were way beyond the scale of what one human child could fix--wars, hunger, poverty, injustice… as soon as one problem is fixed, a thousand more appear to take its place. Even as a god, it’s impossible to help humanity when humanity as a whole doesn’t want to be helped. It’s… disheartening, to say the least.”

“Akira….” Of _course_ Akira would still be trying to help people, of _course_ he’d be making himself upset over something like this, and as frustrated as Ryuji was with this entire situation, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that--god or not--Akira was still the same person he knew and loved. “But… I mean, I’m sure you’re able to help _some_ people at least, right…?”

“Yes. Ironically, our approach of focusing on individuals was a much easier and more effective method of helping than trying to help humanity as a whole--and so I’ve shifted my focus. If I have this power, then I’m going to use it to protect the people I care about and the place that I call my home.” Akira pulled back slightly, resting his forehead against Ryuji’s and cupping his flushed face in his hands. “I’m sorry that you’ve been hurting because of me. I’ve tried to help ease your pain, at least while you sleep, but… please, just remember that even when I’m not here with you, I’m always looking out for you.”

Ryuji’s eyes clouded over and burned with unshed tears as he looked at Akira, his mind replacing the emotionless expression in front of him with the soft, kind expression that he knew Akira would be making--which made his heart hurt even more, knowing that Akira was here in front of him yet he _wasn’t_ , he wasn’t even _human_ anymore.

He could never graduate high school, he could never permanently move to Tokyo and go to university, he could never grow old, he could never _live his life_ , and he would have to just _watch_ as everyone moved on with their lives, until Akira was nothing more than a faint memory in the back of their minds along with the Phantom Thieves and the Metaverse--

“It’s okay, Ryuji.”

Ryuji hardly even realized he’d broken down until he heard Akira’s voice, calm and detached, which only made him sob harder as he buried his face against Akira’s shoulder, holding him tight enough to bruise and crying the tears that Akira wouldn’t-- _couldn’t_ \--shed.

It _wasn’t_ okay, _none_ of this was anywhere _close_ to being okay.

He wanted his Akira back.

He wanted things to go back to normal, back to when they were smiling and laughing and running around the Metaverse taking down corrupt adults, back before people’s lives and _existences_ were at stake.

He wanted to go back to the days where he would wait by the stairs for Akira to get out of class, grinning and swinging an arm around his best friend’s shoulders as soon as he approached so they could head upstairs for lunch.

He wanted to go back to the days where he could stop by LeBlanc on a whim, catching Akira off-guard and watching the small, surprised smile flit across his face before Sojiro would wave him off and remind him not to go getting into any trouble as they left to go hang out.

He wanted to go back to sitting huddled up in Akira’s bedroom, leaning against one another comfortably as they played video games and read manga and watched movies, arms and legs and hands brushing against one another with no embarrassment as they basked in each other’s presence.

He wanted to go back to making plans for the future, looking at apartments in Tokyo with the unspoken agreement that they were going to room with each other, no questions asked, no matter what universities they ended up going to and no matter what jobs they ended up getting.

He wanted their _future_ back, he wanted their _lives_ back, he wanted **_Akira_ ** back.

Having him here, holding him with a weak imitation of a hug, knowing that he would never be able to live his life with Akira properly by his side anymore….

It hurt more than not having him here at all.

* * *

One week.

It had been one week since Ryuji met with Akira; one week since he found out that Akira had given up his humanity to protect everyone; one week since Akira disappeared again from his life with the promise that he would be back.

Akira told him to gather everyone in his old bedroom to talk in one week’s time.

Convincing everyone to come without sounding crazy had been a whole other matter, but he’d somehow managed to both pull it off and convince Sojiro to let them all go upstairs into what he _swore_ was a dusty cluttered attic, until he went up and saw for himself how--save for a layer of dust from being unlived in for the past few months--it was completely straightened up.

Ryuji wanted to blurt out that it was _Akira_ who cleaned it, _Akira_ who’d been living here, _Akira_ that Sojiro should remember because he was practically a father figure to him--

But he forced himself to keep his mouth shut, knowing that it wouldn’t do any good. If _Futaba_ hadn’t gotten through to Sojiro, then some random punk wouldn’t be able to do anything to convince him of Akira’s existence.

“Alright Ryuji, now will you _please_ tell us all what this is about?” Makoto asked with a tinge of exasperation, once everyone was seated or comfortably standing around the room--Ryuji sat on the bed, Ann and Haru sat on the sofa, Futaba sat in Akira’s chair, Morgana sat on the table, and Makoto and Yusuke remained standing.

Ryuji swallowed thickly, nerves mixing with almost painful nostalgia as he looked around at the familiar group gathered in the familiar room, and let out a long breath in an attempt to compose himself before speaking.

“Akira still exists.”

He winced as everyone nearly jumped on him at once, demanding explanations and voicing their shock and disbelief, and he held up his hands to try and get them all to quiet down so he could speak. “Look, this is gonna sound crazy, but just… hear me out, alright?”

Ryuji never considered himself the most eloquent of storytellers, but he did his best to relay everything as best as he could remember from his brief meeting with Akira (minus the more emotional stuff--that was between him and Akira; everyone else didn’t need to know how he was sobbing like a baby).

“... So Akira’s… a _god_ now?” Ann asked with a bewildered expression. “That’s….”

“It’s difficult to believe, yet we’ve seen and experienced stranger things in our time as Phantom Thieves,” Yusuke added, his calm expression standing in stark contrast to everyone else’s expressions of surprise and bewilderment.

There were quiet murmurs of agreement, but Ryuji could still feel the palpable tension in the air--it was admittedly a difficult pill to swallow, even for Ryuji who had seen and spoken to Akira firsthand.

_Akira… c’mon man, if you’re a god then pull off a miracle and get your ass down here to show them I’m not crazy!_

“That was quite possibly the most ridiculous prayer I’ve ever heard.”

Ryuji jumped as he heard a voice right by his ear, his eyes widening in shock as he turned to find Akira sitting next to him on the bed--and Ryuji couldn’t help the way his heart swelled in sheer _relief_ as he saw a familiar spark in Akira’s eyes and a familiar, amused smirk on his lips.

“Akira…?”

Futaba’s voice pulled Ryuji out of his thoughts, and he barely had time to brace himself on the bed before an orange blur tackled Akira, nearly knocking Ryuji off the bed in the process--and with that, the rest of the group moved as well, Ann and Haru giving Akira tight hugs with Morgana worming his way in between them to press against Akira, and Makoto and Yusuke both watching from the side, the former with tears in her eyes and a hand over her mouth and the latter with a content, relieved smile.

Yet somehow, through it all, Akira managed to free one of his hands and find Ryuji’s, taking it and giving it a light squeeze--and that was enough to push Ryuji over the edge as he joined the pile of crying bodies nearly crushing Akira on the bed.

It took a few minutes before everyone got all the tears and hugging out of their systems, but even after Ann and Haru reluctantly moved back to the sofa (Morgana remained seated on Akira’s lap, and Futaba moved to sit on Akira’s other side, hugging his arm as if afraid that he would disappear again if she let go), Akira still continued to hold Ryuji’s hand, lacing their fingers together despite Ryuji’s embarrassment.

(Yet Ryuji made no move to pull away, not when Akira’s hand was so warm and familiar and _tangible_ in a way that he’d taken for granted in the past.)

“I’m sorry for taking so long to come back to all of you,” Akira said, and again Ryuji felt a huge wave of relief wash over him as Akira’s voice and tone sounded normal--he really wasn’t kidding when he told Ryuji that he only needed one more week to get everything just right. “Everything that Ryuji told you is the truth: I gave up my humanity to defeat Yaldabaoth. Unfortunately, since I don’t exist anymore, no one aside from all of you remembers me--in theory, some other people that I grew close with over the year might remember me if they saw me, but since they were never affected by the Metaverse like you all were, their minds wouldn’t be able to retain the memories after I left their sight, unfortunately.”

“So… that means Sojiro…?”

Akira glanced down at Futaba regretfully. “I’d… like to speak with him at least once about this, but he’ll just forget everything as soon as he so much as glances away from me. Even as a god, there’s only so much that I can do, unfortunately.”

“What will you do now?” Yusuke asked with a frown. “I can’t imagine you would be able to return to school or get a job if no one can remember you.”

Akira shrugged lightly with a smile. “It’s fine. I can still spend my time helping people, and I can support you guys and spend time with you.”

“And what about… in the future?” Haru asked softly. “Will you still age like the rest of us?”

Akira gave Ryuji’s hand another reassuring squeeze, not even needing to glance in his direction to tell that he was holding his breath and nervously waiting to hear Akira’s response.

“I won’t be able to _properly_ age, but I can just change my body’s appearance to look like it’s aging alongside you guys. There won’t be any noticeable difference, so you can feel free to think of it as me aging normally if you’d like.”

That… wasn’t the _worst_ answer Akira could have given, Ryuji supposed--it was better than him staying a teenager and watching all of them grow old without him, even if he would just be changing his own appearance to match their ages.

“Where will you stay?” Futaba asked, her voice muffled against Akira’s arm. “Can you stay here?”

“I… really wouldn’t want to bother Sojiro by staying here,” Akira replied hesitantly, though it was clear from his expression that he didn’t want to be anywhere but in this room that he’d called home for the past year. “Like I said, he won’t remember me, and I don’t want to continuously give him a heart attack every time he hears someone walking around upstairs or sees someone coming downstairs.”

“But…!”

“Akira’s right, Futaba,” Makoto responded, her expression sympathetic. “As much as we all want him to stay here, we can’t make things harder on him or on Boss.”

“But then where _will_ you stay?” Ann asked with a frown as she looked at Akira. “You’d have the same problem even if you rented an apartment, wouldn’t you?”

“Technically I don’t _have to_ stay anywhere--I can come and go as I please now that I’ve gotten the hang of it,” Akira replied with a shrug. “So at least for now, I can keep doing that. As for the future, well….” He glanced at Ryuji, who blushed lightly as Akira gave him a smile and said, “If you still wanted to look for an apartment together--”

“ _Yes!_ ” Ryuji practically jumped off the bed with a grin, not even caring about his friends watching him in a mixture of amusement and endearment. “Dude, of _course_ I still wanna look for an apartment together!”

“Are you sure?” Akira looked up at Ryuji worriedly. “I won’t be able to properly be on the lease, and I can try and pull some strings but we might have trouble if only one of us has a proper salary to show--”

“ _Dude_.” Ryuji clasped both of his hands around Akira’s, a bright, excited expression on his face. “D’you seriously think I give a damn about any of that? What’s important is us being  _together_ \--and now you don’t even gotta go back home! You can keep hanging out with us in Tokyo, and I’ll work super hard and save up a bunch‘a money, and we’ll find a place to live together so you don’t have to keep going back ‘n’ forth anymore. It’ll be perfect!”

Akira blinked up at Ryuji before laughing softly, a light blush on his face. “I didn’t realize you were this excited about it,” he teased, before--to Ryuji’s complete embarrassment and to the muffled squeals and gasps of the rest of the group--lifting both of Ryuji’s hands up and pressing a kiss to the back of each. “I’m glad, and I’ll do everything in my power to help you, however I can.”

The room was silent for a moment, before Futaba snickered and said, “Can’t believe Ryuji seduced a god.”

That was more than enough to break the ice: Ann and Akira began cracking up along with Futaba, Haru muffling her laughter behind her hand as Makoto and Yusuke smiled in wry amusement, and Morgana poked fun at Ryuji, who was sputtering and blushing heavily as he hastily tried to both deny Futaba’s claim and shoot down Morgana’s teasing comments.

Despite his embarrassment, Ryuji felt ecstatic--it was like a dark cloud that had been lingering over all of them had finally cleared, allowing them to breathe easy and _smile_ and _laugh_ like they hadn’t done in so long, now that they finally had their leader, their friend, their _family_ back.

It wasn’t the most perfect of situations, of course: no one but them could even acknowledge Akira’s existence, which made it hard when going out with him (waiters forgetting that they never received their meal, people not noticing when they were on line for something… it was like Akira was invisible, and anyone with him was unfortunately treated just the same)--but even still, as long as Ryuji could spend the rest of his life with Akira by his side, it was worth all the trouble and minor inconveniences in the world and more.

He would never take having Akira in his life for granted ever again.


	6. Day 4 (Part Two): Free Day (Wonderland AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Ryuji chased a stray cat down an alleyway, he didn’t expect to find himself in some crazy Wonderland-like place--nor did he expect to meet two transfer students the next day, Akira Kurusu and Ren Amamiya, who happened to look just like two of the people he ran into in the strange, dreamlike land.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes I did in fact take advantage of the free day to dump two more random AU ideas that I had instead of just doing one like a normal person lmao
> 
> Okay so about this one: I'm a sucker for Wonderland-themed stuff, and one of my favorite series based off of Alice in Wonderland is the game/manga series "Alice in the Country of Hearts," which I in turn very loosely based the idea for this AU off of. I doubt I'll ever actually write out the full plot for this one, but I'll dump what I did come up with in the end notes in case anyone is interested and wants to do something with it lmao
> 
> As for the roles, only a few of the characters appear even though I came up with roles for everyone, so I'll dump those roles in the end notes too and I'll just say for clarification that Akira is the Cheshire Cat (whose outfit I based off of [Boris](https://static.zerochan.net/Boris.Airay.full.1196081.jpg) from Alice in the Country of Hearts) and Ren is Mad Hatter (whose outfit I based off of [Blood](https://static.zerochan.net/Heart.no.Kuni.no.Alice.full.510131.jpg) from Alice in the Country of Hearts); everyone else should be pretty easy to figure out lol
> 
> (Ngl 90% of this was me wanting to write flirty French-speaking Cheshire Cat Akira but also wanting to write Akira as the Mad Hatter, and my brain just went "why not both" lmao)

Growing up, Ryuji’s mother had taught him never to go with strangers, and to steer clear of dangerous places like dark alleyways.

Ryuji was pretty sure that chasing after a cat didn’t count as following a stranger, nor was he paying much attention to where he was going as he ran after the feline, trying to get back the golden locket in its mouth.

“Get back here, you damn thief!!”

There should have been no way for this cat to outrun him--bum leg or not, Ryuji was still a pretty fast runner, or so he’d like to think--yet for the life of him Ryuji just couldn’t manage to close the gap between himself and the black cat, which was even more irritating when the cat kept looking back at him with the locket hanging from his mouth as if taunting him.

The cat’s luck seemed to run out as it turned a corner and hit what Ryuji knew would be a dead end… except when Ryuji turned the corner as well, he was surprised to see an open blue door where the wall usually was.

“The hell…?”

Briefly forgetting about the cat and his locket, Ryuji looked at the door with a bewildered expression, trying to make out what was beyond it in the dim lighting of the alleyway.

Then the cat meowed and ran through the doorway, and Ryuji, like the impulsive dumbass that he was, followed without thinking about anything other than getting his locket back.

It was only when the ground disappeared from under his feet that he realized he might have fucked up.

* * *

Ryuji groaned, sluggishly lifting an arm to rub his head as he forced his eyes open and weakly sat up.

Last thing he remembered, he was falling down a creepy void after following a cat into a doorway--yet the area around him was nothing like the alleyway he’d just been in.

In fact, this place didn’t look like Shibuya at all, or at least not any part of Shibuya that _he’d_ ever seen.

He was sitting in a grassy field at the entrance of a forest, with not a building--and more importantly, not a door nor a black cat--in sight, which made Ryuji’s heart drop in panic as he pushed himself up to his feet.

Running a hand through his hair, Ryuji eyed the forest warily before taking a deep breath, letting it out slowly, squaring up, and marching forward.

Fuck it. If he was stuck in some random place, the least he could do was explore--standing around and waiting for something to happen was never his style anyway.

What’s the worst that could happen?

(Don’t answer that.)

Ryuji walked a straight path through the trees, his brows furrowing in a mixture of confusion and frustration as he couldn’t see an end in sight--nor could he see the way he came in from when he glanced behind him, which made absolutely no sense. How could he have gotten lost just by going _straight?_

“It’s not that you’re lost, _mon cher_ , but rather that you don’t know where it is that you want to go.”

Ryuji jumped, startled by the sudden voice, and tensed as he whipped his head around to search for the source.

“Who’s there?”

The sound of soft laughter reached his ears before he caught sight of someone lazily sitting on a branch on one of the nearby trees. Said person shot him a wink once their gazes met before jumping down with a flourish, landing on his feet--and more importantly, landing _way_ within Ryuji’s personal space, forcing him to take a step backwards so he could properly get a look at whoever this guy was.

Immediately, Ryuji knew the guy was weird just from how he was dressed: a black sleeveless crop top with red hems, a red choker with a silver link chain attached, black shorts with red zippers and silver buckles, black and red striped knee-high socks, black shoes, and the most ridiculous (and long) red boa loosely hanging around his shoulders that Ryuji had ever seen.

Not to mention the _cat ears_ and _tail_ that Ryuji could see twitching and moving as if actually more than some sort of weird accessories, matching the shade of black hair on the guy’s head so perfectly that it was almost freaky.

“This is a rare treat, getting to meet an Outsider in the flesh.” The guy--who looked to be surprisingly close in age to Ryuji--had an air of nonchalance about him that was both frustrating and oddly charming, a lazy smirk on his face as he eyed Ryuji with an open interest that he wasn’t exactly used to being on the receiving end of, much to his embarrassment (and much to the cat-eared guy’s clear amusement).

“An Outsider?” Ryuji questioned warily. “What d'you mean? And who are you, anyway?”

The cat-eared guy let out another light, airy laugh. “I guess I should introduce myself before I confuse you any further.” Much to Ryuji’s shocked embarrassment, he took Ryuji’s hand in his own and lifted it up, pressing a kiss to the back of his hand before speaking. “I go by the name Cheshire. What should I call you, _mon cher_ Alice?”

“W-- wait, wait, hold up!” Ryuji ignored the blush heating up his face as he yanked his hand out of Cheshire’s hold and took a step backwards away from him. “What, am I supposed to believe this is some kind’a _Alice in Wonderland_ bullshit or something?”

“Ah, do they still tell that silly story in your world?” Cheshire grinned in amusement. “I promise, this ‘Wonderland’ is nowhere near as absurd as that story makes it seem.”

Ryuji shot him a flat look. “You’ve got fuckin’ _cat ears_ and a _tail_.”

(Said ears twitched as Ryuji called attention to them, and Ryuji found himself repressing the urge to reach out and touch them out of sheer curiosity.)

“Of course; I wouldn’t be ‘Cheshire’ if I didn’t,” Cheshire responded with an airy shrug. “And you still haven’t answered my question, _mon chou_ \--unless, of course, you would like me to call you Alice--”

“ _Ryuji_ ,” he quickly cut the grinning cat-eared guy off with an embarrassed frown. “My name’s _Ryuji_ \--not Alice, and not… whatever that other stuff you’ve been saying, monsher and moncho and whatever.”

Cheshire winced and laughed weakly. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone butcher such a beautiful language so thoroughly--yet even that has its charm,” he added with a wink that managed to fluster Ryuji once more before turning around and beginning to walk. “No point in standing around talking; if I’m going to explain anything, I might as well lead you out of here in the meantime.”

Ryuji momentarily debated whether or not he should follow the weirdo (who was apparently flirting with him for some reason?? Unless Ryuji was completely misreading him, which was possible), before deciding _fuck it_ , he might as well follow the only guy he’d seen so far in this whole place. At least if nothing else, he could (hopefully) try and figure out what the hell was going on and how the hell he could get back home.

“How did you find yourself here?” Cheshire started with a curious glance. “Do you remember?”

Ryuji frowned. “There was a cat--it stole my locket, so I chased after it to get my locket back. It went through some sort’a door, and I followed it without thinking.”

Cheshire hummed in thought. “White, huh… should’ve figured he would be the one to bring a new player in,” he murmured, before smiling as he opened one of the zippers on his shorts and pulled out--to Ryuji’s surprise--a golden locket. “You wouldn’t happen to be talking about this, would you?”

Ryuji snatched the locket from him, opening it and letting out a relieved sigh when he saw that the picture was still inside. “... Where’d’ja find this?” he asked, closing the locket back up and slipping it into his pocket.

“It was at the edge of the forest.” Cheshire shrugged airily. “I thought it was interesting, so I held onto it. Didn’t think I’d find its owner so quickly, though.” With a smirk, he added, “You’re lucky you’re cute, otherwise I would have kept it for myself.”

Ryuji ignored the heat in his cheeks as he shot Cheshire an annoyed side glance, sighing in defeat as he received a wink in response. “Thanks for finding it for me,” he replied, deciding not to rise to what he figured had to be the cat-eared guy teasing him.

“It’s important to you, isn’t it?”

Ryuji’s expression softened slightly. “Yeah. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember; I don’t know what I’d do without it, to be honest.”

Cheshire reached out and--much to Ryuji’s embarrassment--pat him on his head with a soft smile. “Then make sure to take care of it.”

Ryuji huffed and lightly swatted Cheshire’s hand away. “Don’t gotta tell me that. I’m not letting this thing outta my sight ever again.” With a frown, he added, “Anyways, you were gonna explain what the hell’s up with this place.”

“Ah, right, right,” Cheshire responded airily. “I’m sure you’ve realized by now, but this isn’t your world.”

“Yeah, kinda figured that out already; tell me something I don’t know.”

Cheshire stretched his arms behind his back as he walked, cracking a small, amused smile at Ryuji’s wry response. “Right now you’re in the Country of Hearts--of course, as you might guess, there’s also a Country of Spades, Clubs, and Diamonds as well, but those aren’t too important.” He waved a hand flippantly. “You’ll find that there’s plenty of other role holders like myself in this country, including the King and Queen--who I would avoid, if you enjoy having your head on your shoulders,” he added with a smirk.

Ryuji grimaced. “Yeah, I remember enough ‘bout _Alice in Wonderland_ to know the whole ‘off with your head’ bit. She’s really like that?”

“Perhaps not quite as trigger happy with the executions, but there hasn’t been a person yet aside from the King that’s managed to get on her good side,” Cheshire replied with a shrug. “Though I suppose as an Outsider, you’ll end up meeting the Queen one way or another. Role holders are always drawn to Outsiders.”

Ryuji eyed Cheshire warily. “You say that like it’s normal for people to end up here from other worlds or whatever.”

Cheshire gave no response other than a smile that Ryuji couldn’t decipher for the life of him--but regardless of the meaning, he knew it couldn’t be anything good.

His gut was screaming that there was more that the cat-eared guy wasn’t saying, but without a concrete idea of exactly what was being kept from him, all Ryuji could do was continue to follow Cheshire and let him lead both the conversation and their journey through the forest.

A forest that, to Ryuji’s surprise, was quickly beginning to thin out.

_Guess he wasn’t lying about helping me get outta here,_ he thought as they neared the edge of the forest, a large gate appearing in the distance.

“Ah, so this is where we ended up,” Cheshire remarked with a hum, eyeing the gate in a mixture of amusement and annoyance. “I should have figured.”

“Huh? D’you mean you didn’t even know where we were going??”

Cheshire couldn’t help but chuckle as he saw Ryuji’s bewildered expression. “This forest is very tricky--oftentimes you never know where you’re going until you’ve found your way out.”

“Why the hell would anyone go through there in the first place, then??” Ryuji asked, before taking one look at Cheshire’s expression and sighing. “Y’know what, forget it. Something tells me all your explanations are gonna go over my head.”

“Aww, don’t say that, _mon cher_ \--I’m not trying to be confusing on purpose, I swear.”

Ryuji frowned and started walking towards the gate. “Yeah, yeah. Anyways, what’s this place?”

As Ryuji figured, Cheshire followed after him, quickening his gait until they were walking side by side once more and idly toying with his boa as he spoke. “Hatter’s mansion--he’s one of the most powerful people in the Country of Hearts, along with the Queen and the Duchess.” Cheshire laughed slightly as he saw the two people standing guard in front of the gate. “Ah, what a pleasure! It’s been a while, _mes petits papillons_ ~”

Ryuji was surprised to see that the “guards” were two young twin girls, each one holding an axe that was almost comically huge compared to their small statures.

“Dude, seriously?” Ryuji couldn’t help but exclaim, unsure of whether to feel amused or concerned as he approached the two kids. “I dunno who this Hatter guy is, but giving kids weapons and making ‘em guard his mansion sounds pretty shitty of hi--”

He cut off with a yelp as--in the blink of an eye--two axes were crossed at his neck, mere centimeters away from cutting open his throat.

“Watch your mouth, Intruder!” one of the girls spat.

The other girl eyed him with an eerily calm expression as she added, “It would be wise to not speak ill of our master, Outsider.”

“Serious as always, you two,” Cheshire remarked with way too nonchalant of a tone for someone who was watching Ryuji sweat bullets with two giant blades aimed at his neck--but thankfully, his comment distracted the twins enough that they pulled their axes back and instead pointed them threateningly at Cheshire.

“That’s enough.”

The two guards immediately pulled their weapons back to their sides and stood at attention as they were addressed, and Ryuji tensed up in response as he warily turned his attention over to the gate as it opened, unsure of what kind of person would be on the other side.

Of all the people, he wasn’t expecting someone who had the same exact face as Cheshire--though he was dressed much more modestly compared to the cat-eared guy, thankfully: he wore a wine-red shirt with a silver tie, a black suit jacket embroidered with white card suits along the hem, black slacks and polished dress shoes, and--because apparently no one in Wonderland could dress _completely_ normal--a black top hat on his head, decorated to the brim with roses and cards and card suits embroidered in to match his jacket.

The person--Hatter, Ryuji assumed, as if the ridiculous hat on his head wasn’t enough of a giveaway--turned his attention to Ryuji and gave him a small, friendly smile.

Ryuji decided right away that he was a hell of a lot better than any of the other three people he’d interacted with so far in his way-too-long time in Wonderland.

“I’m sorry about my guards,” he began, glancing at Cheshire with the slightest hint of distaste and adding, “I also apologize for anything my brother may have said or done to you in your time here.”

“How cold,” Cheshire replied with an amused smile. “I was a perfect gentleman, wasn’t I _mon chouchou?_ ”

Ryuji blushed lightly and frowned, ignoring Cheshire’s question in favor of focusing on Hatter. “So, uh… you two twins, then?”

Hatter sighed. “Unfortunately.” Waving a hand flippantly, he added, “In any case, it’s rude of me to keep a guest standing outside--come, we can sit down and talk more inside.”

Ryuji tried and failed to keep his relief off of his face, already feeling a slight ache in his bad leg from all the wandering he’d done in the forest both before and after he met up with Cheshire. “Sitting and talking sounds great, thanks.”

Hatter turned around and gestured for Ryuji to follow him, which he was more than happy to do, though he couldn’t help but eye the guards warily as he walked past them.

For good reason, as their axes swung back down right after he walked through the gate, making him jump even if the attack wasn’t aimed at him.

“Aww, are you really going to be like this, _mes petits papillons?_ ” Cheshire pouted as the axes blocked his path.

“Our master didn’t give you permission to enter,” the calmer twin responded.

The angrier twin scowled and added, “Don’t think just because you’re his brother that you can do whatever you want!”

“Ignore them,” Hatter said with a smile, and Ryuji flinched, startled as he turned to find the dark-haired boy standing next to him when he’d been walking ahead of him before--apparently he’d noticed that Ryuji had stopped to watch the scene playing out behind them. “It’s like this every time Cheshire comes around. He enjoys riling people up.”

Sure enough, the cat-eared guy was teasing the angry twin despite the sharp blade being pointed in his direction, laughing airily--and to Ryuji’s embarrassment, Cheshire shot him a wink and blew him a kiss as he caught Ryuji staring.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Ryuji muttered, ignoring the heat in his cheeks as he turned back around and continued walking, only remembering that he had no idea where he was going when he stopped to look around and heard Hatter’s soft chuckling.

“This way,” Hatter gestured, leading the way once more, and Ryuji smiled sheepishly as he followed alongside him.

“So, uh, I don’t think I got the chance to properly introduce myself before,” Ryuji began awkwardly after a few more minutes of silence between them. “My name’s Ryuji.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ryuji,” Hatter replied with a small smile. “As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, I go by the name Hatter.”

“And the guards?” Ryuji asked curiously. “They’re twins, so… what, are they supposed to be Dee ‘n’ Dum or something?”

Hatter chuckled. “Yes, but if I were you I would avoid addressing them unless absolutely necessary--they have a strict ‘strike first, ask questions later’ policy. It’s why they make such excellent guards.”

Ryuji frowned. “But how’s anyone supposed to get in to see you if they can’t get past ‘em?”

“Let’s just say I don’t exactly get any friendly visitors,” Hatter responded wryly, making his way through an archway into a garden and over to a table, where a girl with bright orange hair and (why was Ryuji even surprised at this point?) rabbit ears on her head.

“Ooh, is that the Outsider?” the girl said with a mixture of interest and wariness, eyeing Ryuji curiously but making no move to leave her seat.

“Yes, and apparently his only meeting was with Cheshire so far, thankfully,” Hatter responded, much to Ryuji’s confusion. “You know how horrible of a host Cheshire can be; can you prepare a cup for our guest?”

“Roger that!”

Hatter led Ryuji over to the empty seat across from the rabbit-eared girl, who mixed together something that Ryuji was beginning to grow more and more wary of drinking the longer she spent putting it together.

Apparently Ryuji’s wariness showed on his face, as Hatter shot him a reassuring (and slightly amused) smile. “Don’t worry, you’re going to love it. March is almost as good as I am at preparing different blends for different people.”

“March?” Ryuji questioned, before it clicked. “Ohhh, like the March Ha--”

Hatter quickly cut Ryuji off. “Yes, exactly.” Leaning over towards Ryuji, close enough to make him blush (whether it was intentional or not was hard to say), he whispered, “She's very self-conscious of her ears, so we try and avoid mentioning rabbits or using her full role title.”

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Ryuji responded sheepishly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Hatter smiled, satisfied, and straightened back up in time for March to let out a pleased whoop.

“Finished~!” she slid the cup across the table to Ryuji, who yelped and quickly stopped it before it could slide off the table and onto his shirt and pants. “You’re gonna love it!”

Ryuji looked down at the drink with a frown. “Coffee? I, uh….”

“If you were expecting tea, just know that not _everything_ is the same as in that silly story,” Hatter remarked, picking up his own cup of coffee and taking a sip of it. “Coffee tastes much better than tea, anyway.”

Ryuji blinked before laughing. “Well, I mean, there’s that, but… I was gonna say that I don’t really drink coffee.”

“Try it, try it!” March insisted, almost childish in her impatience as she watched him in obvious excitement.

“I promise, even if you don’t normally drink coffee, our coffee is different--there hasn’t been a person yet who’s tried it and didn’t like it,” Hatter added with an encouraging smile.

Glancing back and forth between the two, Ryuji quickly relented with a sigh as he picked up the cup.

How was he supposed to say no to these two? They might still be a little weird, yeah, but they were a hell of a lot more normal than Cheshire or the twins, and he didn’t want to insult them by refusing to at least take a few sips of the coffee that March had prepared for him.

Ryuji lifted the cup to his lips, bracing himself before taking a sip--

\--only for his eyebrows to shoot up in surprise at the pleasant taste that met his tongue.

March grinned as she sat back in her seat, obviously satisfied, while Hatter’s smile softened as he watched Ryuji take a few more sips of the drink with much less hesitance than before.

“Told’ja you’d like it~” March teased, picking up her own cup and taking a sip from it. “Our coffee’s the best!”

“Yeah, guess you proved me wrong,” Ryuji replied with a laugh as he set his cup down. “This is the first cup of coffee I’ve had that didn’t taste like shit, to be honest.”

March’s grin widened. “That’s just ‘cuz all those other people don’t know how to make coffee like we do! It’s a lot more complicated than just tossing some stuff into a pot of water.”

Ryuji shrugged. “Hell if I know what goes into it, and I can’t say I care either. It‘s not my thing, y’know?” He picked his cup back up and took another sip from it. “But I’ve gotta say, whatever shit you put in here is fuckin’ _good_.”

Hatter picked up a nearby tray of cookies off the table and offered it to Ryuji, who happily helped himself to a few, snacking on them in between sips from his cup and pausing only to ask, “So, as nice as this all is… d’you guys know how I can get home? ‘Cuz my ma’s gonna be really worried if I’m gone for too long.”

Hatter and March exchanged a glance, and had Ryuji not been distracted with finishing the cookie in his hand and the last of the coffee in his cup, he might have been worried by the looks on their faces.

“It shouldn’t be too difficult for you to return home,” Hatter replied.

March snickered. “Yeah, as a matter of fact… you should be heading home pretty soon.”

“Huh?” Ryuji blinked, confused, before grimacing as his vision began to waver. “What…?”

“Just close your eyes, Ryuji,” Hatter gently urged, his soft expression contrasting with the warnings blaring in the back of Ryuji’s half-asleep mind as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

“You… what th’ hell did you do t’ me…?”

“We’re sending you home, duh,” March replied with a grin, watching as Ryuji began to lose the fight with his body, his eyes fluttering closed more times than he could force them back open.

“We’ll see you again soon, Ryuji,” Hatter said with a hint of a smile, his words following Ryuji as his body gave in and slipped away into unconsciousness.

* * *

_I see… they’ve chosen a new participant._

_Cheshire-- no, perhaps it was Hatter, this time._

_I’m curious to see how this will play out…._

_Let the Game begin._

* * *

Ryuji grimaced and shakily moved a hand to grip his head, finding himself returning to consciousness for the second time that day as he forced his eyes open.

Much to his relief, this time he found himself not in a strange land, but rather back in a familiar alleyway.

It took him a minute to reorient himself, but as soon as he was able to push himself up to his feet, he first looked around for any sign of the door he’d fallen through (which, of course, there was none) before quickly pulling out his phone to check the time.

“Crap, ma’s gonna kill me if I don’t get home soon…!”

Figuring it would be best to brush everything off as one long, crazy dream--he’d probably just accidentally knocked himself out chasing after that damn cat or something, knowing his luck, though at least he’d managed to get his locket back in the process--Ryuji raced out of the alleyway and towards the train station.

* * *

It was easy to pass off everything he’d seen as a dream when nothing about it had carried over into reality: there was no proof that anything he’d seen or anyone he’d met had been real, which… how _could_ there be, when he’d seen crazy stuff like people with animal ears and little girls wielding giant axes?

Yet maybe, just maybe, there was something more to that crazy dream than Ryuji first thought.

After all, how the hell could he possibly explain something like _this ?_

“ _Bonjour_ ~ My name is Akira Kurusu, and it’s a pleasure to meet all of you.” Though the dark-haired boy had no cat ears and was wearing a regular Shujin uniform, there was no mistaking his familiar face nor his familiar voice.

“Kurusu-kun spent the past nine years living in France, and only just returned to Japan,” the homeroom teacher explained in a disinterested tone.

“And if you happen to see someone else walking around the school that looks like _moi_ but much more serious, that would be my brother, Ren,” Akira added with a light laugh. “Please try not to confuse us too much, okay?”

Ryuji’s gaze happened to meet Akira’s, and an irritatingly familiar combination of embarrassment and annoyance washed over him as the transfer student winked at him.

_Does he know? Or am I just going crazy?_

There was no way he could just approach someone and ask “ _hey so I had this dream that might not have really been a dream and you were there but you had cat ears, and I’m pretty sure your brother was there too, d’you know anything about it?_ ”, but at the same time, not knowing for sure was going to drive Ryuji completely crazy (or at least, crazier than he apparently already was, if he was actually starting to consider that it hadn’t been a dream).

Ryuji was pulled from his thoughts as Akira began walking in his direction, and he tensed up only to realize that the teacher had pointed Akira to the only empty seat in the classroom.

Which, of course, was directly behind Ryuji.

_Great._

Ryuji had a feeling that his school year was about to get much, _much_ more complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, feel free to take all this nonsense with a grain of salt, but for anyone that cares:
> 
> Akira = Cheshire Cat (Cheshire)  
> Ren = Mad Hatter (Hatter)  
> Ryuji = Alice (Ryuji/Outsider)  
> Morgana = White ~~Rabbit~~ Cat/Duchess's Cat (White)  
>  Ann = The Duchess (Duchess)  
> Yusuke = Caterpillar (Pillar ~~it’s a bit more artsy than caterpillar or bagworm lmao~~ )  
> Makoto = Queen of Hearts (Queen/Your Majesty)  
> Futaba = March Hare (March)  
> Haru = King of Hearts (King/Your Majesty)  
> Akechi = Knave of Hearts/Black Knight (Knight)  
> Caroline & Justine = Tweedle Dee & Dum (don’t even bother addressing them you’ll just get axed)
> 
> -Wonderland = Metaverse, Persona users are role holders while everyone else is a faceless citizen of the Country of Hearts (a la Alice in the Country of Hearts)  
> -Ryuji is tricked into participating in “The Game” after drinking a potion that was slipped into the coffee that March and Hatter gave him, and ends up meeting both the Wonderland role holders and their real-world counterparts (except for Caroline & Justine/Dee & Dum and Morgana/White, who are special cases)  
> -He learns that the residents of Wonderland (including the role holders) have no hearts, and he learns that they all have real-world counterparts that are suffering--and he also learns that by spending time with them and learning more about them, it affects their real-world counterparts  
> -His role in The Game is to create a “Heart” with someone by growing close with them (essentially causing something similar to a change of heart)
> 
> And that's about all I came up with lmao


	7. Day 5: Rivals AU (+ Superhero AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently this new hero--Joker or whatever his name was--missed the memo, because this was _Skull's_ territory, and he didn't appreciate Joker strolling in and taking over his hero duties like he owned the place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the final prompt for Pegoryu AU week! Thanks to everyone that read, kudo'd, and/or commented on all of these AUs, I really appreciate it <3
> 
> I couldn't really think of anything for Rivals, so I decided to combine it with the Superheroes prompt from the first day. I'm not _entirely_ happy with how it came out, but it's a different kind of Pegoryu than the usual soft Pegoryu that I write, so at least it was a new experience if nothing else lmao. Hopefully it came out well! ^^
> 
>  
> 
> ~~Also I can't come up with superhero names to save my life so I just stuck with their Metaverse names lmao sorry~~

Being a superhero in Tokyo wasn’t exactly easy, but Ryuji prided himself on keeping his neighborhood on the straight and narrow.

Since the city was so big, there was an unspoken agreement amongst the lucky few citizens who were gifted at birth with unnatural powers (or at least, the ones that used them to protect those who weren’t so lucky) that each person would be in charge of patrolling different sections--no one would step on anyone’s toes, and everyone would get the proper recognition that they deserved as they kept the citizens of Tokyo safe from harm.

Which was fine and good, except apparently this new guy _didn’t get the memo_.

Ryuji (or Skull, as he went by in his hero guise) had his first encounter with the mysterious new hero when he was on his way to stop a group of thieves that had attempted to rob a nearby bank--typical, cliche villainy that Ryuji would have laughed about had he not caught sight of someone gracefully hopping down from a nearby building, stopping the thieves in their tracks with a(n unfairly attractive) smirk and a snap of his fingers.

_Mind control?_ was Ryuji’s first thought, before realizing _what the fuck, this is_ **_my_ ** _turf; who the hell’s this bastard and why’s he stealing my thunder?_

To Ryuji’s irritation, the masked hero slipped away while Ryuji was rushing in to apprehend the thieves, completely unnecessary as it was: they were already walking back towards the bank in a daze to put the stolen money back where they found it.

The next time Ryuji saw the masked hero, it was when he was cracking down on a drunken asshole who was trying to make a move on a defenseless girl late at night--and to his absolute irritation, he turned to check if the girl was alright only to find the _smug bastard_ pressing a kiss to the back of the girl’s hand as he escorted her away from the dark alleyway.

Ryuji knew that there was more to being a hero than people fawning over him, but why the hell was she treating that asshole in the _stupid-looking cape_ with that _stupid-looking mask_ on that _stupid face_ like _he_ was the one that saved her and not Ryuji?

So what if she probably thought he looked attractive while Ryuji looked like some kind of thug--looks weren’t everything!

(Besides, if anyone asked him, that bastard looked more like a Walmart-brand Tuxedo Mask than an actual superhero anyway.)

The third time caught Ryuji completely by surprise: the new hero--whose name he’d found out was “Joker” (what a stupid name) (not like his was any better, though)--had somehow beaten him to the scene of the crime, and Ryuji was stunned to watch him at work.

Fire out of one hand, ice out of the other--electricity dancing along his arms, wind gusting around his body--he was literally a force of nature, and Ryuji had never _seen_ someone with so many abilities, with so much _control_ over so many different abilities, wielding them like it was as easy as breathing and moving with so much grace and finesse that Ryuji felt awkward and bumbling in comparison just from _looking_ at him.

It was no wonder everyone in the area was starting to love and respect Joker.

It was no wonder they were all starting to forget about Skull.

Ryuji was so lost in thought that he didn’t even realize that Joker had finished taking care of everything until said superhero approached him, his friendly smile immediately raising Ryuji’s hackles.

“I couldn’t help but notice you watching,” Joker started, and _god_ Ryuji wanted to punch the smirk off of the bastard’s (unfairly attractive even with that stupid mask on what the _fuck_ ) face-- “I understand wanting to check someone out, but I would really appreciate a bit of help next time--”

“Wait, wait, back the _fuck_ up--I was _not_ checking you out!!” Ryuji sputtered, his face flooding with color (from anger, _not_ from embarrassment, damn it). “I was just… what the _fuck_ , dude? What are you, some kind’a one-stop-shop for superpowers or something?? _No one_ has that many powers!”

Joker blinked in surprise before laughing, a gloved hand quickly moving to muffle the noise as he saw Ryuji glaring. “Sorry, I don’t believe I’ve ever been referred to like that before; it caught me off-guard.” Lowering his hand, he gave Ryuji another small yet friendly smile. “My power is a bit… complicated. I suppose you could call it a memory-based power: if I’ve seen someone use a power, I can imitate it.”

“... Dude, that’s OP as fuck.”

Joker’s smile weakened slightly. “You wouldn’t be the first to say that, or at least something to that effect.” Quickly recomposing himself, he added, “In any case, I’d appreciate a hand next time.”

Ryuji bristled. “And _I’d_ appreciate if you stayed outta my terf.”

“... Why? Wouldn’t it make more sense for two heroes to be patrolling instead of just one?”

Ryuji bit his tongue, hating how he knew that Joker was right--logically it wasn’t a bad thing to have someone else around to watch his back and help him protect everyone, but….

Well, jealousy was an ugly beast, and logic had no place when Ryuji’s one sense of self-worth was being threatened and taken away from him.

“ _Because!_ That’s just how shit works around here, alright?”

Joker frowned, a glint of _something_ in his eyes that Ryuji didn’t like. “... I see. That’s unfortunate.”

“And why’s that?” Ryuji asked warily.

“Because,” Joker smirked. “I’m going to be living here for the next year, and I don’t plan on giving up being a hero just because you’re feeling insecure.”

The air began crackling with electricity as Ryuji’s irritation spiked, his fists clenching by his sides. “You wanna say that again?”

Joker’s smirk somehow managed to widen as he leaned forward, getting right in Ryuji’s face as he said, “You’re just jealous that I’m a better hero than you.”

He preemptively backflipped away, feeling rather than seeing the lightning bolt that struck the ground where he’d been standing hard enough to leave a burning scorch mark in its wake.

“As much as I’d _love_ to continue our conversation,” Joker began airily, ignoring Ryuji's seething expression and shooting him a wink, “I have other engagements to attend to--but I look forward to our next meeting, _Skull_ ~”

With that, Joker disappeared (literally fucking _disappeared_ , god _damn_ that overpowered cocky bastard), leaving Ryuji to try and force himself to regain control over his emotions before all the power in the area went out.

Again.

(That was only _one_ time, though, and he never thought he’d meet someone who would piss him off as badly as he had been back then.)

It was only after Ryuji had gone through a few breathing exercises and managed to somewhat calm himself down that he realized something:

He’d never actually introduced himself.

That meant that the bastard _knew_ he was the hero in this area--he _knew_ , and he kept stealing Ryuji’s thunder and doing all Ryuji’s work before he even had the chance to.

_Why_ , though? What, was he trying to run Ryuji out and take over or something?

Ryuji scowled at the thought.

_Fat fuckin’ chance--I already almost gave up once; I ain’t letting some show-off overpowered asshole ruin this for me._

Joker wanted to play this game? Then fine, Ryuji would show him up so badly he’d wish he never even came to Tokyo.

_I’ll show everyone that I’m the better hero, mark my words--that jerk is going_ **_down_ ** _._


End file.
